


The Reborn

by Sparklypuppy05



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Android Gore (Detroit: Become Human), Body Horror, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Horror, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Post-Peaceful Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Psychological Horror, Reader-Insert, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:36:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 29
Words: 31,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24650131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparklypuppy05/pseuds/Sparklypuppy05
Summary: It is one year after the android revolution. Androids and humans have cooperated to design a process to put a human mind into an android body. The process is restricted to those who have suffered horrific accidents, or under certain circumstances, those with terminal diseases. However, those who have undergone the treatment, referred to as the Reborn, have begun reacting in strange and sometimes violent ways to their new lives.You are an officer at the Detroit Police Department, and have been working alongside Connor and Hank for the past year. You have been tasked with working alongside Jericho to discover the true nature of these glitches, and find a way to stop the malfunctioning Reborn before it's too late.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	1. Michael Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You go on your first mission regarding the Reborn. There's a small mishap.

So there you all were, stood around a table in Markus' office in Jericho, studying maps and files and so forth. You and Hank were standing a little further back from the rest - you were the only two humans in the room, and didn't want to crowd the androids. To tell the truth, that was probably why you'd been selected for the mission. Anybody else would probably have thrown a fit about being surrounded by androids - androids who were in control of the situation. It made sense for them to be in control, though. After all, they were the experts on subjects concerning androids, such as the Reborn.

The Reborn were humans who had suffered fatal accidents or illness, and had subsequently had their minds transferred into android bodies. It was a new and well-discussed treatment, and although it was perfectly legal, every person that you asked would likely have a different opinion on the subject. Few truly understood how the process worked except for the Jericho technicians and government scientists that had pioneered the process. There were rules, of course - for example, nobody over 50 was allowed. Recently, the Reborn had begun reacting oddly, and very, very violently. That was your job.

"Our target is Michael Black," Markus said, a little louder than usual - the briefing had begun. "22 years of age, 5'8, Caucasian, brown hair, green eyes, small scar on the left cheekbone, all replicated in android model. He was transferred into his new body after a 50-car pileup two months ago." Everybody at the table visibly cringed.

"No previous history of mental issues?" Connor checked.

"No previous issues," Markus confirmed. "We have reports of him being sighted close to an underpass in the city centre, acting erratically and displaying violence towards himself and others. Today, we'll investigate the area and attempt to track him down."

"Did he reject post-transfer therapy?" Hank spoke up. "Ain't that commonplace? Supposed to make them feel, like... less upset about the fact that their human bodies are dead?"

"Correct," Markus replied. "He accepted post-transfer therapy, but only attended four of the weekly sessions before disappearing." You took a step forwards, peering at the files scattering the table.

"That means that he'd have attended therapy for a month after the accident," You said suddenly. "The reports of erratic behaviour began a month ago. The accident was two months ago, so the erratic behaviour began almost immediately after he stopped attending therapy." There was a moment of silence where everybody checked, before Josh spoke up.

"(Y/N) is right," He said suddenly. "The timeline matches up, and his post-transfer therapist reported that he was experiencing intrusive thoughts, which were usually about wanting to self-harm. It makes sense."

"Something to keep in mind," Markus agreed. "Let's go and get this stakeout going."

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

You immediately scattered when you arrived at the underpass, each of you seperately looking around. Connor immediately looked nervous, but none of them spoke. The highway was at least ten feet above you, probably closer to twenty feet though. The concrete that the underpass was made of was covered in graffiti, although the majority of it was absolutely terrible. The group immediately scattered to hide and wait for Michael, although Connor stayed out in the open, staring at a certain spot on the concrete.

"Connor!" Hank hissed, gesturing for Connor to join you and Hank in your chosen hiding spot. "What are you doing!?"

"There's thirium everywhere," Connor said quietly. He sounded oddly dizzy. "There's a trail of it, leading off into the abandoned area." Everybody began cautiously leaving their hiding spots, looking across into the nearby abandoned blocks. It was full of abandoned homes that were entirely falling apart. From what you knew, there'd been an issue in that area that had caused the water to be undrinkable, so everybody had left.

"We should follow it," North said immediately. "It's gonna lead us right to Michael, and the sooner we bring him in, the better."

"I agree," Markus said quickly. "Let's follow the trail." There were a few murmurs of agreement, before all of you began moving into the abandoned part of the city.

It was like a ghost town. There were no noises, no movement, no nothing. It was extremely unnerving, and the others were obviously as disturbed as you were. Almost all of you already had your sidearms out and in your hands, and Josh, despite always being a pacifist, was reaching for his own firearm with one hand. It was slowly becoming apparent that there was absolutely no life there. There were no stray cats or dogs, no birds in the trees, not even a ladybird.

As you and the rest of the group moved through the city, the group slowly began to investigate a little bit more. Connor was still in the lead, following the dried-up thirium trail, but you could tell that some in the group - especially North and Hank - were beginning to get a little impatient. It was fair to feel that way, really. It was unlikely that Michael would be hiding out in such a place. Reborn retained their human instincts - along with the rest of their minds, actually - and you couldn't think of any reason why a human would be in a place like this.

"Why are we even here?" Hank said loudly, stopping in his tracks. "I signed up for a stakeout and arresting a Reborn that was frightening citizens, not trudging through a bloody toxic wasteland for hours on end!"

"It's only been twenty minutes so far," Connor pointed out. "Not hours. And technically, you did sign up for this. You're a police officer, after all. It's your job to serve and protect, is it not?"

"Connor's right," Simon added. "We need to find Michael. He's probably just scared and doesn't have a proper support system. We can give him that."

"Everybody, calm down!" Markus said suddenly. "Come on, let's all calm down already. We need to cooperate and-" He was cut off, staring into the distance. "Holy shit. Did anybody else see that?"

Everybody turned to follow Markus' gaze, looking into the same dark alley. For a moment, you were just standing there, squinting into the dark, wondering what the hell Markus had seen to make him react in that way. You took a step or two forwards, and all of a sudden, Connor grabbed you by the shoulder, yanking you back. And then, you saw it. A man was standing in the mouth of the alley, half-blending into the shadows, staring at the seven of you.

5'8. Caucasian. Brown hair. Green eyes. Small scar on the left cheekbone.

Michael Black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise that things are gonna pick up soon, I just felt like it'd be weird to stuff too much into chapter one. Also, it's quarter past 11 at night and I'm exhausted lol. Anyway, I hope that you're enjoying this fic so far! Please leave a comment or kudos, and come back for chapter two! Have a great day!! :D


	2. Michael Black: The Blue Park

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"You tried," He rasped out, "But I will never belong. You tried, and I thank you for that. Thank you."_
> 
> You find your target.

The figure immediately began to move away once it spotted you and the rest of the group, back down the alley that he had come from. You immediately rushed after him, but he was surprisingly fast, and it was apparent that none of the androids wanted to leave either you or Hank behind. As you moved along down the alley, wet thirium began to paint the walls, writing out words. "KILL ME", "KILL ME", "KILL ME", over and over and over again, written in shaky, dripping handwriting. It sent a shiver down your spine as you read it - was this where Michael had been hiding all along?

You eventually moved out into what looked like a park. The grass, flowers, and trees were obviously once-lush, but they were now dry, brown, and wilted. The park was circular, surrounded by tall marble walls. There were scratched-up marble statues scattered all around the place, and a large, ornate marble fountain in the middle of the park, which was obviously dried up a long, long time ago.

You all paused a few paces into the park, looking around. The figure, presumably Michael Black, was still half in shadow, his head between his knees as he crouched next to the marble fountain in the shadow of an enormous oak tree. All around the walls of the park - which was nearly eight feet tall - was covered from ground to top with still-wet thirium, splashing the walls and ground. It pooled on the ground like little pieces of sky, and scrawled on the walls were words and phrases like in the alleyway. "KILL ME", "KILL ME", "I DONT BELONG", "KILL ME", "PLEASE MAKE IT ALL STOP", "KILL ME", "KILL ME", every single spot where words could fit was covered with it.

Markus began to slowly approach Michael, holding out one hand. He was crouched close to the ground, approaching Michael carefully.

"It's alright," He said softly. "I know that you're afraid, but there's nothing to be scared of. We all just want the best for you. If you come with us back to Jericho, we can talk, alright? Get you any repairs that you need, too. You must have lost a lot of thirium." You all exchanged worried glances - it really was a lot of thirium. Suddenly, Michael spoke.

"Kill me." His voice broke three times in a two-word sentence. It sounded clicky and robotic, but at the same time, like somebody with a sore throat, or to say even further, like somebody talking underwater. Maybe even all three at the same time. Michael began to stand up, wobbling and stumbling as he spoke. "Kill me. Kill me. They don't help. They hurt me. I don't belong. Not on either side. Freak. Freak." It sounded like he was repeating what somebody else had told him, parroting back another person's words. "KILL ME!" The sudden shriek was surprising, making everybody flinch back, especially you and Hank. You couldn't tell whether the scream was out of agony or terror.

Michael stood up, stumbling towards the light. Markus immediately stood up and backed off, and it was suddenly obvious why.

Michael was a mess. Wires spilled like angel-hair pasta out of every place where metal or plastic seamed together, the ends still sparking, dripping thirium. He was missing one eye, and actively gouging at the other, howling and crying out whenever he tried, but he seemingly couldn't stop. Burns and wounds covered every inch of him, blunt-force wounds creating dips and divots all over his plastic frame, stab wounds dripping thirium onto the ground as he stumbled forwards like some twisted version of a soldier, endlessly stoic, almost not noticing his injuries. What little clothing he was wearing was soaked blue, the colour identical to skin against new jeans. Skin. His skin was barely there, and the hand that wasn't clawing at his eye was attempting to rip off pieces of himself, like he could do anything much with only two fingers on that hand. Sparks fell from where his fingers should be, falling to the ground and threating to set the tinderbox grass alight, like Michael had already lit up his own body and watched the thirium fall to the ground like rain.

The group began to back away, each of you helplessly clutching your weapons. You didn't know what you could do. Even if, by some miracle, Michael was convinced to return to Jericho, could anything be done? Surely, he was far past saving? A human in the same situation would be. And he'd likely just repeat what he'd done after he was released, besides. If he somehow managed to survive a condition like this once, he wouldn't survive a second time, even if the government agreed to fund yet another presumably-expensive repair project.

"We can still save you!" Markus said desperately. "You belong, Michael. You will always belong. Please, come back with us. We can help you, repair you. Please." _Yeah, fat chance of that,_ you thought bitterly to yourself, still backing away along with the rest of the group as Michael fell forwards over and over again, persistently catching himself just before the edge. Markus was still edging towards Michael, as if he believed sheer proximity and willpower could heal the Reborn. All of a sudden, Michael fell forwards onto Markus, laughing bitterly.

"You tried," He rasped out, "But I will never belong. You tried, and I thank you for that. Thank you." And with that, Michael took a final rasping breath, and shut down.

There was a moment of panic as Connor and Josh both surged forwards. Markus, Connor, and Josh immediately began looking over Michael as you, Hank, Simon, and North exchanged worried, uncertain glances.

"It's a temporary shutdown designed to prevent full shutdown, equivalent to death," Connor announced, tossing Michael's limp body over his shoulder. "We can still save him." You all shared the thought that it was unlikely, but nevertheless, you followed Connor and Markus out of the park, trying to block the unpleasant thoughts of what may or may not happen out of your mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HERE WE GO, MY PEEPS!
> 
> I hope that everybody enjoyed this chapter! Please comment or leave kudos if you enjoyed, and have a great day!! :D


	3. Michael Black: The Reboot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You've found Michael, but there's still more to discover.

"I don't know if I can do anything for him," The technician admitted, staring at Michael's beaten body, laid out on a table in one of Jericho's repair bays.

The seven of you had carried Michael back through the abandoned kingdom of suburbia in total silence, focusing more on the bone-dry grass under your feet than what had just happened mere minutes before. The atmosphere was tense and anxious, and all of you had been silent as you picked your way around long-abandoned belongings on the pavements. You eventually reached the van, and had loaded Michael's limp body into the back, before heading back to Jericho.

"Are you sure?" Markus asked anxiously. He still hadn't accepted that it was a lost cause yet.

"I mean... we could try?" The technician replied, slightly warily. "I can't promise anything, though. He's really done a number on himself."

"Why are we even doing this?" North interjected. "He's a human really, just in a different body. And it was his choice to do this to himself, as well." Markus sent a glare in her direction.

"We need to at least try," He insisted. "I came back from the dead. You all know that. So if I can do it, why can't he?" A murmur of agreement went around the group, all of you nodding along. North looked reluctant - very reluctant, in fact - but she did back down.

"Fine," She sighed. "But it's your resources that we're wasting by doing this." There was a moment of silence, before the technician spoke up.

"Right," He said nervously. "I'm gonna need quite a few new biocomponents to do this. And a bit of privacy. So would you, uh, mind?"

All of you nodded profusely, moving to leave the room. There was a bit of a crush as you did so, all seven of you trying to exit the repair bay, but you did manage to get out. You all just stood around for a few awkward moments, looking around at each other. It seemed a little odd to just leave each other alone now that you'd spent so much time together, but... it was necessary.

And with that, you mumbled goodbyes and went your seperate ways.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

The next time that the seven of you came back together in a group was two weeks later, after the report of Michael's repair had come in. There had been a few different reports of Reborn causing issues during that time, but mostly, they were dealed with easily and there was no need for the seven of you to chase after the issues.

You all silently filed into the repair room, greeting each other as you did so. The Jericho technician was sitting there, ready to try to reboot and activate Michael, as weird as that sounded. Michael looked leagues better than he had when you'd first met - all of the missing limbs and extremities had been replaced, the dents had been worked out, the thirium had been cleaned off - or maybe it had just dried up - and all of the wires were presumably back where they belonged.

"If he's gonna survive, this is when it's gonna happen," the technician warned. "If he doesn't survive this, if he goes back under... we ain't gonna try again.

"I understand," Markus said calmly. "Activate the reboot, please."

The technician nodded, moving to activate the reboot. Michael's entire body seemed to quiver and shake for a few moments, before he laid still again. You all held your breath - well, you and Hank did - before Michael's eyelids began fluttering wildly, and all of a sudden, his eyes snapped open. His gaze went from the ceiling, down the wall, to finally land on the group of you. He froze, and you could tell that he was subconsciously holding his breath as well.

 _Well, at least we know that the reboot worked,_ you thought to yourself.

Michael slowly sat up, still staring at the seven of you. He blinked once, twice, three times - each blink long and slow. He flexed each finger, then his fists. He stretched his arms upwards as if he was waking from a long slumber, watching your group the entire time - Markus in particular - as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

"You saved me," He said calmly, swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

"We did," Markus said, equally calm and solid. He moved to sit down on one of the free chairs, facing Michael. "You could be saved, so we saved you."

"Shouldn't have bothered," Michael mumbled. "It's not like I belong in this world anyway."

"Why do you say that?"

"Look at me," Michael said bitterly. "A man with an android's body. Do you think that the humans are gonna accept me? No way. In their eyes, I'm tainted somehow. Like it's my fault that there was some drunkard that caused a crash, and somehow, I was qualified to be some asshole's lab rat. And the androids? Half of them despise humans to the point of violence - and rightfully so, really - but that means that they'll never see me as anything other than yet another filthy human, except this time, I'm stealing their culture as well. I should be dead."

There was a long minute of horrified silence. None of this had occured to you before, and it made you slightly ashamed to realise that. Of course neither humans or androids would ever wholly accept the Reborn. Did that explain the violence that you'd seen back at the park? No, not really, he would have just shot himself or something if he truly just wanted to die. No. Something had caused this man to want to inflict maximum pain on himself before he died. Your thoughts were cut off by Markus speaking aloud.

"Michael," He said firmly, "You will always be welcome here at Jericho, and I mean that now and always. Jericho is here so that humans and androids can be equal, and the introduction of the Reborn is a brilliant step in that. We will support you however you need us to." Michael snorted with laughter.

"Yeah," He said, amused. "You keep saying that for now. Whatever helps you sleep at night."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, I need to stop writing late at night. Please leave a comment or kudos if you enjoyed this fic, and have a great day!! :D


	4. Molly Gray

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new Reborn arrives.

Markus didn't like visiting the children's wards. Usually, they were filled with child-model androids who hadn't found Jericho soon enough, or had else been found by some teenagers who felt like 'Having some fun'. It made him sick. But ever since the Reborn had been introduced, the wards had also included anybody under 18 who qualified for the project. And today, there was somebody there that he needed to talk to.

 _Molly Gray, age 15,_ His internal files began. _Diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 12. Cancer later spread to the heart, blood, and kidneys due to inaction from parents. Cancer declared terminal 7 months ago. At current pace and date, natural death of human body is due to occur within 2-3 weeks. Assigned to the Reborn Project 2 months, 3 weeks and 5 days ago. Court has ordered for patient to be put into the care of an android guardian until age 18 post-transfer. Transfer due in 5 hours and 37 minutes._

A shiver went down Markus's spine, especially at the phrase "Due to inaction from parents". This girl's parents hadn't done anything about _cancer_? He was glad that she was being put into another's custody. Especially since it would be an android - that would help her adjust to her new life.

Molly looked up as Markus entered the room, smiling tiredly. Markus took a seat next to the bed, and Molly immediately sat up.

"So," Molly said - she sounded exhausted. "Today's the day, huh? They said that you'd come in to discuss my options."

"You know who I am?" Markus asked, surprised.

"Of course I do. You were plasted all over the news a year or so back. I was in hospital back then, but I watched a load of TV. I know who you are."

Markus was surprised, to say the least. He hadn't expected that answer. Barely anybody had seemed to know who he was back at the beginning, just after the first android rights protests had begun. Maybe they'd just been pretending not to know who he was, for some reason... No. He knew exactly the reason why they'd all pretend not to know who he was.

"Right," Markus said lightly. "Okay. It's good to meet you, Miss Gray. I apologise for your situation, but I hope that after the transfer today, you'll have a better life."

"Me too," Molly said, amused. "I'm looking forward to not having to worry about my lungs anymore. I'm sick of the coughing... coughing up slimy shit every five minutes. Sick and tired of it." As if on cue, she was sent into a coughing fit, tears springing up in her eyes from pain. The fit eventually faded, and she reclined back onto the pillows, exhausted.

"I'm here to discuss a few things regarding the procedure," Markus said gently. "First of all, what would you like done with your human body?"

"Save it to start with. I wanna see it after the transfer, that'd be super trippy and pretty cool," She immediately blurted out. "After I've seen it and taken a few pictures, donate whatever organs you can. Cremate the rest, and send them back to me."

"We can arrange that," Markus agreed. "Second of all, are there any adjustments that you'd like made to your android body? At this stage, we can change features such as eye colour, hair colour..."

"Don't worry about it," Molly said casually. "I can always get that changed later on."

"In that case, only one last question," He continued. "Would you like to allow anybody in specific to visit the ward post-transfer?" Molly thought for a moment, before replying.

"There are five friends who have supported me in all of this," She said calmly. "Leo Miles, Nina Pall, Abby Rougei, Josh Jameson, and Sam Golde. Let them in if they come to see me."

"Understood," He replied. "I'll put the names in your file. I'll come back later on to see how you're doing."

And with that, he stood up and left.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

As he had promised, Markus returned to the ward five hours and 37 minutes later. Well, it was more like 6 hours really, because he'd wanted to give Molly time to adjust, but it was as soon as possible. He headed through to the recovery room that Molly had been assigned, and as he got closer, he could clearly hear squeals of delight and laughter. It was definitely Molly's voice, but lacked all of the pain and breathlessness that had been there earlier.

He slowly opened the door, glancing at the technician as he entered. The technician smiled, nodding towards Molly. Molly was running around the room, playing with all of the various toys that had been set up. Each one was secretly a test in disguise - tests of balance, hand-eye coordination, and so forth. Markus was relieved to see that Molly, unlike that morning, actually looked happy. Molly caught sight of Markus nearly immediately, and ran to hug him, nearly bowling him over.

"You're happy?" Markus said lightly, hugging Molly back.

"Yes," Molly said, very quietly. "Yes. I'm happy. It..." She sniffled a little, wiping her eyes on her sleeve - she was wearing light, loose cotton clothes, designed to avoid overwhelming new Reborn. "It doesn't hurt to breathe anymore. Thank you."

Markus took a deep breath, hugging Molly tightly. He was so, incredibly thankful for the Reborn program, and always had been. Not all humans were terrible, and he knew that from his time looking after Carl. It wasn't fair that humans often died so soon and so suddenly, and to let them live on in android bodies... this was how it was meant to be. He just knew it.

He sighed, stepping back from Molly and setting his hands on her shoulders.

"You're going to be spending the night here, just in case," He said calmly, despite his internal joy. "Your new guardian will arrive to pick you up tomorrow, okay? Enjoy yourself for now, though."

"I will!" Molly said excitedly. "Thank you, Markus. Really. Thank you." She stepped forwards, hugging Markus again around his waist, before running off to continue exploring what her brand new android body could do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Switching it up a little with Markus's POV before I continue with Reader's story. Also, Molly will return later on in the story!!! :D
> 
> Please leave a comment or kudos if you enjoyed, and have a great day!!! :D


	5. Noah Collins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new case emerges. You have your suspicions.

There was another case. That wasn't new, really - there'd been a new case every week for two months, and each one had come to the exact same conclusion: The Reborn in question had survivor's guilt and hadn't been accepted by friends and family, leading to violent and suicidal actions. Something just wasn't adding up, though. None of the Reborn had suffered from mental health issues before, and there wasn't a hint of suicidal tendencies to be found. But this case was different.

Noah Collins, 7 years old. He'd been transferred to an android body after an accident when he was five years old involving a kettle and some lego, ending with Noah having 87% of his body covered in scalds and burns of various degrees. At least, that was what the file read. The reason why you were there was different, though. Earlier that day, Noah had been mauled by the family dog, except there was a heavy amount of suspicion that Noah had taunted the dog into attacking him. If this was the case, then something fishy was afoot - what seven year old kid was suicidal?

You met up with Connor and Markus as you entered the lobby, and they immediately began walking alongside you. Connor quickly explained that you three were the only ones who were supposed to meet with Noah directly - the rest of the group would join you later on at the crime scene itself. You nodded in agreement and understanding, continuing through to Noah's room.

You immediately felt sick at what you saw. Noah was missing one eye entirely and half-missing the other one, thirium being periodically cleaned off his cheeks by an android nurse. It looked like he was partially scalped, the plastic of his scalp fully visible. Wires sparked in gaping wounds on his face, the black infinity of pain almost visible in both the wounds and the hollow sockets where his eyes should have been. You could scarcely imagine the pain that Noah must have been in, even though the young boy barely made a peep.

"Can anything even be done for him?" You whispered to your two comanions, horrified. Both Connor and Markus were both obviously shocked, and Connor swallowed hard immediately, shaking his head wordlessly. You sighed, nodding in reply. You'd expected that much. You didn't think that anything much could be done for somebody in such a state, human or android.

"Right," You said, swallowing again to avoid the urge to vomit. "What happened to him?"

"From what we know, the dog attacked him," The nurse said with a shrug. "We don't have much other information, really. I mean, his parents think that he goaded and teased the dog into attacking him, but well, it's a pitbull. You know what those are like, don't you? It couldn't have been prevented." Connor immediately gestured for you to go outside with him, and with a nod to the nurse, you obliged. As soon as you were outside, Connor began speaking.

"Pitbulls are typically calm dogs, not aggressive at all," He blurted out. "By my calculations, working with the limited information we have, there's a 74% chance that Noah brought this on himself."

"Then there's still a 26% chance that he didn't," You added. "Let's not be hasty. We need to finish the investigation." Connor nodded reluctantly after a few moments, and the two of you re-entered the room, looking around. It looked like Markus had been talking to the nurse, and they both looked wary. Noah looked even more tense and in pain than before. You decided not to mention it.

Markus greeted the two of you with a nod, and you re-seated yourself. You paused for a moment, re-examining Noah's injuries. How could a dog like a pitbull have gouged out his eyes like that...? The gashes and scalping were easy, but a dog would have needed to go through a lot of trouble to gouge out a person's eyes in that way, especially because of the way his eyes were set in his head. Even if Noah had, indeed, goaded the dog into attacking, it likely wouldn't have gone to that kind of trouble to get to his eyes. Connor was right - something fish was going on here. Plus, if you were interpreting both Markus and Connor's expressions correctly, they'd realised the same thing. You swapped suspicious glances, each one of you seperately side-eyeing the nurse, before moving on.

You asked a few more questions to the nurse - just the usual stuff, things that were necessary for paperwork and so forth. As soon as you were finished, you all stood up and left the room. You began walking down the corridor in silence, each of you separately pondering what you'd seen. It was certainly a mystery, you knew that much.

"Did you guys notice the kid's eyes?" Markus blurted out. "A dog couldn't have done that. I just know it."

"I did," Connor replied. "And I agree. It doesn't make sense. The other wounds do, but not the eyes... no, not the eyes." His voice was surprisingly thoughtful.

You thought about the situation. You weren't actually alone in this - wouldn't the rest of the group want to know what had happened? That gave you an idea. You were lucky in that you didn't need to rely on rumours and hearsay. You actually had a chance to know what really happened - not what the nurse thought, the parents claimed, or Noah had deliriously told the hospital staff. None of that was reliable at all, and it certainly wasn't suitable for police work. Suddenly, you spoke up.

"We should ask the others what they think," You suggested. "We have the pictures of Noah's injuries in the files, right? And they're on the crime scene, so they have the CCTV footage. We can see what really happened."

"(Y/N) is right," Markus agreed. "Let's go and check."

The three of you immediately went to leave the hospital, but you just couldn't stop thinking. How had Noah's eyes been gouged out? Why was the nurse lying, blatantly or not? And, most importantly... why had Noah never made a sound?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any theories yet? Let me know in a comment, lol.
> 
> Comments and kudos keep me fueled and writing, so please leave some here!!! Have a great day!!! :D


	6. Noah Collins: The Crime Scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You visit the crime scene. Yet again, things don't add up.

You arrived swiftly at the Collins's residence, which was still cordoned off with police tape. Hank greeted you at the entrance - well, 'Greeted' was a bit of a strong word. Really, he just gestured you inside whilst still interviewing Mr and Mrs Collins. Both parents, to you, looked adequately grief-struck and tearful, although something just seemed... off. You couldn't put your finger on it, though. Hank was as gruff and unemotional as usual. You headed inside, surveying the area.

The living room was visible through the front door, and it was quite a scene. The carpet was soaked through with thirium-blue stains, scraps of fake flesh spread across the room. A shiver went down your spine as you spotted what looked like a ripped-out fingernail on the carpet. There was no sign of the ripped-out eyeballs, though, and despite the police tape, you could just barely make out footsteps in the now-dried thirium... You just kept on staring at the scene, until you felt a tap on your shoulder. You jumped, spinning around to come face-to-face with Markus. He looked both concerned and curious, and you suddenly realised that North, Simon, and Josh were all gathered around. All five present androids were staring at you.

"(Y/N)? Are you okay?" Markus said lightly. "You were staring. Do you need to step outside for a moment?" He was clearly concerned, but you had no intent on leaving before the crime was solved. Yeah, you were surrounded by androids, who were all stronger and smarter than you, and the crime scene was rightfully sickening and that was probably slowing you down a little bit, but you weren't any worse than them, and intended to prove it.

"I'm alright," You said calmly. "I was just examining the crime scene. Look," You said, trying to be as casual as possible. "The boy had his eyes ripped out. No eyeballs that I can see. And look in the thirium. It looks like footprints - a person's footprints." All the androids peered past you, but they quickly nodded in agreement. You could tell that Markus still had his eyes on you, though. You didn't react or turn around or make eye contact with him. You didn't want to make a scene.

"Yeah, I see it," Simon agreed. "And they said that Noah was attacked by the family dog. There isn't a single sign of a dog in the house, at all. No dog hair, no food or water bowls, no dog food in the house. No dog bed, no toys, no collar or leash, no phone number for a vet. There's nothing to indicate that a dog ever lived here, or a pet of any kind, for that matter."

"Maybe it was an android dog?" Josh suggested. "Android pet adoptions have been going up rapidly over the past year. Maybe the parents wanted to get Noah an android dog like him after the accident?"

"I don't think so," North said with a frown. "I haven't heard of anything like that happening with other Reborn kids. I mean, it's possible, for sure, but I really don't think that's right."

"The parents said that the dog ran away after the attack," Hank called out, approaching - he'd clearly overheard the conversation. "I've sent Officer Miller to interview the neighbours, but it's definitely suspicious. The parents are huge assholes, too. They were constantly going on about how badly behaved the kid's been since the accident. I mean, jeez, your kid's been in a traumatic accident and been literally transferred to a different body, and you're gonna judge him over a few tantrums? He's seven, for fuck's sake!" He was clearly irritated. "And I know what you're all thinking, but we can't take 'em into custody yet. Not enough evidence." A sigh radiated through the group.

"I'm going to head upstairs to investigate the house more thoroughly," Josh volunteered. "Simon and North, you stay down here to look at the crime scene a bit more. Connor, Hank, look around outside. Markus, (Y/N), can you look at the CCTV footage? They've got a home security system, the DPD forced them to give us access before we arrived."

"That's actually what we were going to do anyway," Markus agreed. "A few things didn't match up when we visited the hospital. Hey, (Y/N), with me." You immediately followed behind Markus, a little relieved to be away from the awful, horrific thing that was the crime scene. Which was really a bit pathetic, because it was literally a crime scene. The one thing you'd been trained to deal with. Nevertheless, you were thankful to get away from it. It really was sickening to look at, or even think about. Markus glanced back at you at least twice to make sure you were following behind him during the ten-foot journey to the kitchen, which was... a little odd, but you didn't dwell on it. You had better things to think about.

"Right," Markus said lightly, approaching the laptop set up on the kitchen table. "Let's take a look at this." He took a seat in front of the computer, and you pulled up a chair to sit next to him, peering at the screen. Markus took a glance at the piece of paper next to the laptop with the home security system password scribbled on it, before typing it in, starting up the system and accessing the footage from 3-5 AM - the alleged time that the incident had occurred at.

"That's odd," Markus mumbled, frowning. You mirrored his expression, your head tilting to one side. The 3 AM to 5 AM section of the footage had been manually erased. The time of the erasure was listed as 5:57 AM - exactly twelve minutes prior to the call to emergency services that had kicked off the case. You and Markus glanced at each other, both of you understanding entirely what the other was thinking.

"So," You said wryly, "You don't expect that the dog somehow learned how to use the internet before running away, do you?" Markus snorted with laughter, shaking his head.

"No, no I don't," Markus said firmly. "Time to talk to Mr and Mrs Collins, don't you think?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Accidentally added Markus/Reader undertones to this chapter... whoops lol. May or may not continue. This story only has 25 views anyway, so... yeah lol.
> 
> Leave a comment and kudos, please!!! Have a great day!!! :D


	7. Noah Collins: The Chase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You find evidence proving a certain point of view. The culprits try to escape.

Immediately after the words had left Markus's mouth, a yell came from upstairs. It was Josh, you could tell instantly.

"Markus! (Y/N)! Come up here and take a look at this!" The two of you looked at each other, before rushing upstairs, almost tripping over each other to get to the landing at the top. You both dove into the parents' bedroom, and you began to look around. All the pictures on the walls were dated to before Noah's accident, and Josh was sitting on the bed, holding a shoebox. You looked inside the box, and were immediately horrified.

Inside the box were two half-destroyed, child-sized Reborn optical units, a fully intact thirium pump with no signs of claw marks or anything else signalling a dog attack, and a few enamel, thirium-covered fingernails. Markus and Josh both looked equally sick. Footsteps sounded as somebody climbed the stairs, and Hank and Connor both entered, Hank immediately starting to talk.

"The neighbours all said that the Collinses have never owned a pet, let alone a dog, and definitely never got one," He explained.

"No pawprints in the mud outside either," Connor added. Both he and Hank quickly noticed the shoebox, and came in close to examine what was inside. Connor visibly swallowed, and Hank paled.

"Oh my god," Hank said quietly. "Right. We need to submit this as evidence immediately. This is grounds for immediate arrest." As if on cue, Simon and North entered, and you all turned to look at them. Simon looked sick when he spotted the shoebox, but North looked like she'd expected it from the start.

"We found these buried in the garden," North said, holding up a stack of pictures. She paged through a few of them, holding each one up. Each one was a photo from after Noah's transfer. "It's like they were trying to forget that they ever had a kid in the first place."

"We have to arrest them," You blurted out. "This is... this is awful. I mean, they're trying to erase their son from existence by literally killing him just because they hate androids."

"(Y/N), you're right," Connor agreed. "You and Hank should go and do the arrest, though. They might take it better from a pair of humans than from a group of androids."

"I agree," Markus said with a nod. "Hank, (Y/N), go and get them into custody. We'll be right behind you if they get belligerent or violent, okay?" Hank sighed heavily, gesturing for you to follow him. You stood up from where you'd settled on the bed, following Hank back downstairs. Mr and Mrs Collins were just outside, under the porch. It had started to rain lightly in the past twenty or so minutes, and the clouds were dark - it'd probably get worse.

"Mr and Mrs Collins, we're gonna need to ask you to turn around and place your hands behind your back. You're under arrest on suspicion of premeditated murder and tampering with evidence, you have the right to remain silent." For a few moments, nobody moved, and the Collinses just stared at Hank with their mouths open, somewhat resembling a fish. "Please place your hands behind your back," Hank repeated, "Or I'll have to add resisting arrest to your charges."

Almost immediately, the two Collinses took off in a flash. You didn't even think about it, and immediately began chasing after them. You could hear Hank behind you as he began to lag behind, moaning and complaining about how the Collinses were 'Fast for their mid-thirties' and it was 'Basically an admission of guilt anyway'. The suburn was on the very edge of the bigger city, and you quickly began to get into Detroit proper. You were still chasing after the pair, but the thunderstorm above you was picking up, fast.

The two Collinses quickly split up, Mr Collins diving down an alleyway. You kept on chasing Mrs Collins on the straight path, rapidly gaining on her. That was, until you reached some stairs going down onto a plaza, and you had to slow down not to slip on the slick marble surface that the stairs were made out of. You picked up the speed again once you were at the bottom of the stairs, but there was already plenty of distance between you and Mrs Collins. It wasn't hopeless, though, and you kept up the chase.

You quickly began to lose your target in the crowds that had gathered around the plaza fountain despite the now-pouring rain, and you were desperately trying your best to catch sight of her again. You didn't manage to catch sight of her again until you were thoroughly out of the crowds, though. By this point, you were nearly twenty feet behind her, and in a desperate attempt not to lose her, you put on a burst of speed, only to have it really, really, really backfire on you.

You immediately slipped on a particularly slippery bit of pavement, and as you slipped onto your ass, you got a great view of Mrs Collins disappearing into the crowds. You grimaced, sighing to yourself, and began trying to pick yourself up and dust yourself off. The moment you were back on your feet, you fell back down, a burst of pain radiating through your ankle. You let out a loud yelp, not trying to get up again.

"(Y/N)!" Connor yelled from behind you - it appeared that he'd managed to catch up. "Are you okay?" He immediately picked you up under your armpits, and began looking at your ankle, frowning lightly - it seemed that whatever scanning technology he had downloaded had already identified your injury. "Oh, you've got a sprained ankle. I'll call the others to bring us to the DPD so it can be treated."

"No, don't bother," You said quickly. "I'll be fine, I promise. And besides... I didn't catch them," You said, sounding audibly guilty. "We need to catch them and arrest them, and I blew our chances."

"It's alright," Connor said casually. "You didn't stand a chance, not really." That... stung, you had to admit. "Besides, I've already texted Markus. He and the rest of the group will be here within twenty minutes, you ran quite a way." You silently nodded, looking down at the ground. You couldn't bear to look Connor in the eye after what had happened. With any luck, the Collinses would still be found, and they'd be found fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm bad at chase scenes, lol. Let me know if any of you all have any opinions on how the reader's relationship with each member of the main group should develop!
> 
> Leave a comment and kudos if it so pleases you, lol!!! Have a great day!!! :D


	8. Reprise: The Meteor Shower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things take a change of pace.

It was about three days later, and a Saturday. Connor had basically strongarmed you into taking a week off of work in order for your ankle to heal, and it was still difficult for you to walk around. Multiple members of your group had offered to come over and help out, but you'd rejected their offers every time - you'd probably be fine on your own. Luckily, the Collinses had been caught the morning after the chase by a normal beat cop, and Noah was on his way to recovery.

Your Reborn-hunting group of seven had begun getting closer and closer together. Despite your repeated insistence that you didn't need any help, Markus and Simon had both come over to your house over the past few days, dropping off food and/or baked goods and making sure that you were okay. To make sure that everybody knew that you were alright, you'd organised a small gathering of sorts at your house, just to prove that everything really was alright, and you weren't injured beyond repair. It certainly seemed that the others, especially Connor, thought you were.

Unfortunately, it had really, really backfired. You'd been limping around painfully for the entire evening, and it wasn't even that late - that is, if you counted 11 PM as 'Not that late'. Markus had been checking in on you maybe every twenty minutes or so, and everybody there was obviously worried, but it seemed that after you'd collapsed on the couch alongside everybody else, tensions had lightened a lot.

Everything was oddly peaceful. Hank and North were arguing over the TV remote - trying to decide which sport to watch between baseball and wrestling, apparently. Simon and Josh were talking quietly, and Connor was sitting on the floor, playing around with his quarter, performing all sorts of very complicated tricks. You and Markus were sitting at opposite ends of the couch, both of you trying to keep up with what was happening in both of the sports matches that Hank and North were frantically swapping between.

You sighed heavily, stretching out. You grimaced when you saw how swollen your sprained ankle had gotten - it was an angry shade of cherry-red, and warm to the touch. You shuffled over a little and leaned up against Markus for support whilst you poked and prodded at your sprained ankle, frowning lightly. Markus did seem a little surprised, but didn't complain.

"You shouldn't be poking at your ankle," Markus said lightly. "It's just going to aggravate the injury."

"I'll be fine," You said casually. "I'll be right as rain ASAP. It's not like I broke my neck and ended up as a Reborn or something." Markus quirked a smile, ruffling your hair.

"If it makes you feel any better, nobody's gotten a transfer from falling down the stairs," He said lightly. "But you should still be resting, (Y/N)."

"Robo-Jesus is right, actually," Hank called over, taking a break from explaining the intricacies of the superiority of baseball to North. "If you fuck up your ankle permanently, you'll be on desk duty. And desk duty is boring as fuck."

North took Hank's distraction as an opportunity to grab the TV remote and switch the channel to wrestling. Hank immediately noticed and went to grab it back, and they wrestled over the remote like children for a good thirty seconds, the channel switching between a million different things, ranging from gardening to calligraphy to a documentary on how architecture in ancient Nepal was heavily influenced by aliens from Mars.

"Stop!" Josh said suddenly, grabbing the remote from North's hands. "Look!" He pointed at the channel - the news.

_... And tonight, we're happy to announce that the Leonid meteor shower will be visible over Detroit tonight due to clear, cloudless skies. The shower will be peaking at 10 PM to 1 AM. Stargazers in the audience are advised to look for comet-like meteoroids originating from the constellation Leo. More updates will be available later this evening._

"It's peaking right now!" Josh said excitedly. He was clearly very enthusiastic.

"We should go outside and see if we can spot it," Simon agreed.

"Sure!" You said happily, moving to stand up. "We'll need to turn off all the lights in the house first, though. Light pollution and all that, you know?" Connor immediately leapt to his feet and ran off to start turning off lights, and you all laughed a little at his enthusiasm. You began to try to stand up, and Markus immediately looked alarmed.

"(Y/N), are you okay?" He said anxiously, standing up to help steady you.

"I'm alright," You reassured him, beginning to limp towards the back door. "Let's just get outside so I can sit back down."

The sky was calm when you got outside - it seemed that the meteor shower hadn't begun yet. You dropped down onto the grass, and Markus settled down beside you, looking up at the sky. You laid down on your back, staring up at the sky. Within five minutes, all of the others had joined you, Connor being the last to come out into the garden.

It took almost half an hour for anything to happen. You were considering going back inside, when all of a sudden, Connor gasped loudly, pointing up at the sky. You all followed his gaze to see a meteor fading into the darkness. Several other comet-like meteors quickly became clear, and by this point, all seven of you were watching the sky in absolute awe. You sat there for a good twenty minutes or so, maybe even twenty-five or thirty. Finally, the meteor shower began to fade away, and you sighed heavily, sitting back up.

"Shall we head back inside?" You suggested. Everybody nodded and mumbled their agreements, standing up to head back indoors, Connor and Markus heavily supporting you.

"I wish that you two wouldn't try to pick me up all the time," You sighed. "It's a sprained ankle, not a goddamn broken leg. You know that, right?"

"We do know that," Connor said calmly, "And none of us want you to be badly injured for any significant length of time. Which is why, (Y/N), you should be resting." You sighed, shaking your head, but you didn't argue. You couldn't argue with that.

You paused for a moment, looking back up at the sky as one final meteor passed overhead. Your head tilted to one side a little, and you sighed heavily - you'd found yourself in the company of five androids and one grizzled, alcoholic detective, all of whom turned into panicking mother hens over a simple sprained ankle. You really hoped that they calmed down soon enough, because otherwise... what had your life come to?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FLUFF GODDAMNIT.
> 
> Leave a comment and kudos if you want to, and have a great day!!! :D


	9. The Hand: The Package

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A gruesome package arrives.

It was maybe a week later, and you finally, finally had a new case to work on. You'd taken your full time off of work that you'd taken because of your hurt ankle, but since there'd been no cases to work on, Captain Fowler had asked you to stay at home and keep on resting. However, you'd received a phone call from Hank around 5 AM that morning, which was... pretty disturbing, to say the least. You were coming into Jericho at around 8 AM, listening to the voicemail you'd gotten.

_"Hey, (Y/N)... I know that you're probably asleep right now, but North just texted me. There's a package that just arrived at Jericho. No fingerprints, no sign of where it might have come from. There's a, uh... there's a hand inside. A whole-ass hand. Said that it matches the model for Reborns. RB700 or something like that. We need you to come in. Please._

You grimaced to yourself as you entered the Jericho lobby, hurrying over to the front desk. You held up your ID for a few moments, before the receptionist waved you through. You proceeded through to the meeting room that your group had met in before, quickly opening the door and heading inside. Markus, Simon, and North were anxiously talking together, Josh looked oddly nauseous, and Connor and Hank were sitting together in silence. There was a brown paper package on the table.

"(Y/N)!" Connor said quickly, standing up. "We're glad you're here. Come and take a look at this." You made your way over to the table in the middle of the room, silently greeting each member of the group with a small shared touch. You swallowed hard, before opening up the brown paper box. The box looked... ordinary, really. Sealed with brown packing tape, no return address. It was an odd juxtaposition to what was inside.

Sitting inside the box was an entire hand. The skin tone was brown-ish and tanned, and two of the fingernails were missing, on the pointer finger and middle finger. Wires of all shapes, sizes, colours and patterns sprung from the wrist, and sky blue thirium was leaking from the spaces between the wires, staining the cardboard on the bottom of the box. There was no sign at all of who might have put it there, especially since that it appeared to have been delivered by hand.

"How did it get here?" You said as calmly as you possibly could, closing the box back up again. You swallowed hard, trying to stop yourself from straight-up vomiting into one of the several bins scattered around the room.

"Hand-delivered to reception," Simon replied. He was clearly nervous by his tone of voice and body language. "It was definitely delivered by an android, not a human or a Reborn. They had an LED, according to the receptionist on duty at that time."

"I thought that most, if not all androids had removed their LEDs by now," Connor said curiously. "Of course, I'm an exception, but I would expect that most androids who deviated before the revolution wouldn't appreciate the extra reminder of Cyberlife."

"That's true," Markus agreed, "But at the same time, there are a few androids who don't like change, or are too afraid of the pain in order to remove their LED. We don't judge, of course. It's an individual choice for every android, and they don't need anybody going around telling them off for 'Not doing what they're supposed to'. They've all had enough of that for a lifetime."

"Well," You said calmly, "You said that the hand is from an RB700 model. That's a Reborn-only model, alongside the RB800, which is more customisable. So, if an android with an LED dropped off the package... do we have our first case of android-on-Reborn violence?" A murmur of worry carried itself around the room as the question hung in the air.

There was a long moment of very, very awkward silence. You all knew that it was a huge possibility, but none of you really wanted to acknowledge it. It was a difficult topic to handle, and if you jumped to a conclusion or blamed the wrong person, that could mean bad consequences for any one of you, the entire group, Jericho, or the DPD. The DPD was already in deep trouble with the government because of their poor handling of various situations during the revolution - firing on protestors entirely unprovoked came to mind - and nobody wanted Jericho's government and city funding to get revoked. If that happened... that would be very, very bad for everybody. Finally, Markus spoke.

"It's... likely," Markus agreed. "There's a million other possibilities, though. We can't just jump to conclusions. It could be a Reborn or human who somehow got their hands on an LED, or it could even be somebody pulling a really elaborate prank. We can't just assume anything." You weren't sure about the others, but to you, it sounded more like Markus was just reassuring himself. You knew that he more than anybody hated the idea of androids hurting Reborn, but it was definitely a possibility. A possibility that you couldn't dismiss.

"Well, we're going to need to pass it along to the forensics team, right?" Josh said after a few moments of scared silence had passed. "They'll be able to figure out who it belongs to. In the meantime, we can check and see if there are any Reborn that went missing recently." You all nodded hurriedly in agreement, all of you hurriedly moving to gather your things.

"We'll gather again this evening to see what's what," Hank decided. "Back here, 5 PM, alright? Forensics'll have done their job by then, and it can't take nine goddamn hours to check a list that probably doesn't even have any names on it. So there's no excuse for having nothing. And if it does turn up with nothing, then hit the streets and do some research, see what you can find."

"We should group up," Markus said immediately. "Connor and (Y/N) can go together, you guys go and drop off the, uh... package at the forensics lab. Josh and Hank can go together as well, they can check the list and ask around. Simon, North, and I will stay here. Interview the receptionist and so forth." He paused, waiting for you all to agree, before continuing. "Alright, good luck everybody, see you this evening."

You all nodded, saying goodbye for the day, before each of you moving off to accomplish your separate missions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Introducing some murder mystery here, LOL.
> 
> Leave a comment and kudos if you so desire, and have a great day!!! :D


	10. The Hand: Sydney Page

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You get a lead, who shows you to a second, much better one.

Connor made you carry the box, and you couldn't really blame him. Despite the fact that the thirium soaking through the bottom of the box made it pretty awkward and gross to carry, you wouldn't want to be lugging it around either if it was a human hand. You didn't actually mind too much - the forensics lab wasn't actually all that far away. According to what Connor had told you, you'd just have to drop off the package and the scientists and technicians that Jericho employed would take it from there. Apparently, you were expected.

You were still carrying the box very awkwardly when the pair of you arrived, holding it on the sides with just your fingertips, really. You smiled sheepishly at the scientist who hurried up to you. You paused for a moment as she and Connor interfaced, averting your gaze. You knew that Connor wouldn't mind if you watched - he was constantly answering your questions about androids - but you didn't know what the scientist would think, and besides, it was really just polite. The scientist looked shocked for a moment, before pulling away from the interface and taking the box from you. She opened the box and looked inside, before grimacing and giving Connor a nod, and walking off.

The two of you quickly turned around and left again, Connor giving you a silent gesture to follow him. By the look of the signs you were passing, he was taking you to the cafeteria. You'd visited the Jericho cafeteria once or twice before, and it was actually quite a nice place to be. It reminded you more of a cosy bookshop or library than an actual cafeteria, and was well-stocked with both android and human food. All in all, it really was a very nice place.

You weren't surprised when Connor led you into the cafeteria - you'd predicted it a mile off. You both ordered - you got a chocolate chip muffin, whilst Connor got some kind of thirium drink that you'd never seen before in your life, and you'd probably butcher the name if you tried to pronounce it. Connor insisted on paying, as usual. You both went over to a small pile of cushions, settling yourselves down to eat. You both ate - well, you ate and Connor drank - in silence for a good five minutes, the two of you just enjoying the atmosphere. You hadn't been to a place as nice as this in quite a while, having been too busy with cases to bother.

"Are you okay?" You blurted out suddenly. "I-I mean... you don't do stuff like this often. And I know that you were really bothered by that package, and, uh... I'm just worried. That's all." A few moments of silence passed before Connor spoke.

"I'll be fine, with time," Connor said calmly. "I just wanted some quiet before we have to go back to the others and start up on the case again. This is all... it's bothering me, a lot. Why would somebody try to aggravate Jericho in this way after a year of peace? Especially if it's another android. It just doesn't make any sense."

"Don't worry," You responded soothingly. "We're going to find whoever did it, I promise. We'll find out what happened, and who's in the wrong, and we'll fix it. I promise." Connor nodded silently, before looking over at the door. The rest of the team silently filed into the room, settling down around the pair of you. Hank settled down directly next to Connor, flashing a smile and patting him on the shoulder comfortingly. You could only guess that the two had spent enough time together that Hank naturally knew that something was wrong.

"We've got a lead on somebody who might know something," Markus said lightly. "Sydney Page. You know that the package was hand-delivered, right? So: The android who dropped off the package? Sydney owned them before the revolution. It's not much, but it's something. It's a lead, and we desperately need those right now. Let's go and see what he has to say."

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Sydney, as expected, wasn't much help. He was a car repairman who ran his own garage, and when you'd arrived, he'd been working on an antique car that had come in. The car only dated to 1998, apparently, but in 2039, it was considered to be technically antique. He seemed to really, really not want to answer any of your questions - or answer them in any useful form, apparently. You were getting a little bit annoyed at this point, but you were trying not to make it apparent.

"Rosie?" Sydney said casually at your mention of the android. "Yeah, she went off to Jericho after the broadcast on TV a year back. I let 'er go. Wasn't pleased about having to repair the cars and do housework, but hey, I wouldn't want to live in slavery either. Haven't seen her since Christmas last year when she came back to visit."

"What model was she?" You said calmly, glancing over at Connor. You really weren't getting any answers.

"AP700," Sydney replied. "I think so, anyway. She did the housework and booked in customers for repairs."

"It checks out with what the AP700 was programmed for," Markus chimed in, taking a step forwards from the rest of the group. "It makes sense."

"And did Rosie ever display any sociopathic or psychopathic tendencies in the time you knew her post-deviancy?" You finished. You were really getting annoyed at this point - how could Sydney not remember any important details about his own goddamn android? If you're going to keep somebody as a literal slave, he could at least be bothered to remember more details than his android's name.

"Nope," Sydney said casually. "Not that I can remember, anyway."

"Alright," You said calmly, holding back a sigh.

"Oh!" Sydney said suddenly. "She mentioned another android. A, uh... GS200, I think. Called Percy. Brown hair, brown eyes, she said. Might want to look into it."

"We'll take a look," You said, brightening up significantly. "Thanks for your help, Mr Page." You all moved to leave, and you quickly moved in close to Connor - he was clearly excited.

"Another lead," You said excitedly. "We're gonna find out what happened, I promise. It's gonna be okay."

"I hope," Connor replied, flashing a small smile. "I hope."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is... mostly padding, lol. I apologise.
> 
> Leave a comment and kudos if you so desire, and have a great day!!! :D


	11. The Hand: Daisy And Alyssa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You investigate Sydney's claims some more.

There wasn't a single GS200 named Percy with brown hair and brown eyes in the entire Jericho database. You should know - you had just spent maybe three hours searching the entire database, which held the name of every single android, deviated or not, across the entire country. You were lucky to only have to go through the ones that had been in or around Detroit over the past year. You really were just about ready to give up - you'd hadn't found anything even close.

"I give up," Hank announced, pushing himself away from his computer terminal, his head in his hands. "I give the fuck up. Face it, we aren't gonna find this Percy asshole. Not here, at least."

"There's a GS200 named Peter with brown hair and green eyes living in one of Jericho's assigned android housing complexes," Josh suggested.

"No, it's not close enough," Markus said quickly. His voice sounded anxious and clipped, like he couldn't spare any time to pronounce every one of the whopping five words in his sentence. You could tell that he was just as upset and pissed off as the rest of you. He was upset about everything that had happened that day, and scared for his people. "Keep looking." You all groaned loudly, but kept on searching.

You searched for another forty-five minutes, maybe. By the end, you were exhausted, both physically and emotionally. Your mind was thoroughly numbed, names and models and serial numbers swirling around in your head. You had become doing anything possible to stop yourself from bursting into tears from sheer boredom, which had eventually become making little rhymes out of every entry you read off. After maybe ten minutes of this, the rest of the group had joined in as well.

"Mandy Tunese, #356-892-105-22, ST300," You sang to yourself, the words quickly joining the mumbling song that everybody in the room had joined into. "Jeremiah Classe, #176-678-883-10, BL100," You continued, mumbling a little more this time. "Zoe Fivvera, #138-482-376-16, JB300... Liam Dinew, #749-617-897-33, MC500... Perth Quicke, #117-562-380-16, GJ500..." You paused, suddenly realising something. "Wait. Wait. Perth... GJ500... Guys! I might have found something!"

Markus quickly decided that considering that Sydney had heard the name and model in passing about a year ago, it was close enough. Perth also lived in Jericho's assigned housing, alongside two roommates. You immediately headed out to the housing complex that was listed, all of you absolutely ecstatic to see the sun again after four hours of staring at screens, reading names.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

When you arrived, the door was promptly opened by a young woman. She had long black hair, down to her waist, green eyes, and plenty of dark freckles. She looked very confused at why you were there, but stepped outside, propping the door open.

"Good afternoon, ma'am," Simon said politely. "We're looking for Mr. Perth Quicke? Is he at home right now?"

"Oh, Perth!" The woman said lightly. "Come inside. My name's Daisy, by the way. Perth is out right now, but he should be back relatively soon. He's never really out for very long." She beckoned you all inside, and you all filed inside. The flat was neat enough, another woman with short brown hair and glasses sprawled out across the couch. "This is my girlfriend, Alyssa," Daisy added. "She's human, but she pays rent. Her parents don't exactly approve of her dating me, so... she lives here right now." You nodded politely towards Alyssa, but she didn't reply.

"You wanna know about Perth, I'm guessing?" Alyssa said wryly. "He's an ass, I can say that much."

"Alyssa, don't say things like that!" Daisy scolded. "But... she's right, in a way. Perth's changed recently. He's become really violent and aggressive towards both Alyssa and I, but mostly Alyssa. It... it really does make me worry. Alyssa is doing her best to make sure that nobody around here views her as a threat, but... this just isn't like him."

You frowned lightly, glancing around at the rest of the group. It did make sense... violent and aggressive? Sounds like the kind of guy who'd be perfectly willing to chop off somebody's hand and deliver it to the only pro-android group in the entire country. And if he was acting oddly - irrationally, even - then that would explain the situation even more.

You continued the questioning for maybe half an hour, Daisy becoming more and more anxious the entire time. You thought that it was quite odd how nervous she was getting, but didn't say anything. It wasn't your job to question that, just to write down what Daisy and Alyssa said in response to each and every question that the others asked.

"Perth isn't usually out this long," Alyssa commented. "He's got a job down at the local library, but he's always back by 2 PM. It's really weird that he's still out right now." You quickly checked the time - it was 3:47 PM. You were a little surprised, just because you hadn't expected it to be so late. It only felt like midday. But you supposed that after searching the Jericho database for hours on end would skew your perception of time just a little bit. It was still pretty weird to see that it was so late, though.

"Do you know anywhere that we might be able to find him?" Connor suggested, tilting his head to one side just a little bit.

"Maybe," Daisy hummed. "There's this park, in the city. We've found him out there super late a couple of times. You could try there." Connor extended his hand in a request to interface, and Daisy accepted. Like usual, you looked away, just out of politeness. Hank also looked away, although not to the same degree as what you did.

"Alright," Connor said calmly. "Thank you for your help."

You all began to leave, Connor taking the lead as you moved away from the flat. You could immediately tell that Connor was very, very excited about the progression of the case. You knew that Connor especially was having trouble with how disturbing the case was, and you could only hope that the case would be solved soon, and the culprits would be apprehended. However, like Connor had said earlier, you could only hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to move this story along tbh. Very sorry about all of the padding, I'm having a touch of writer's block.
> 
> Leave a comment and kudos if you so desire, and have a great day!!! :D


	12. The Hand: Fight Club

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You find the crime scene, and the victim.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a short, non-graphic vomit scene in this. Skip from "Connor silently walked over to it, scanned the body, before nodding." to ""Yeah," You said lightly. "I'm alright."" if you're concerned.

You arrived at the park at around 4:30 PM. It looked pretty normal to you - perfectly manicured lawns, gravel paths lined with flowers and benches and streetlights, a playground at either end of the park and a few statues and table-tennis tables. Nothing at all seemed wrong to you. Hank looked similarly bored and confused, but the five androids were looking around very thoroughly.

You suddenly noticed that Connor looked very, very panicked. He was looking around frantically, chewing on his lower lip hard enough to draw thirium. It was even more concerning when he just kept on chewing on his lip instead of pausing and assessing the damage like he usually did. You were watching him carefully, your gaze drifting every so often. North, Simon, and Josh were all searching in a very certain area around the playground, and you noticed that Connor was becoming drawn over there as well.

"Connor?" Markus said suddenly, beating you to it. "Is something wrong?" Markus was clearly concerned, his brow creased together. His head was cocked to the side very slightly, watching Connor closely.

"Thirium," Connor blurted out after a good few seconds. "Thirium... it's... it's everywhere." Connor began drifting over towards the playground where the other three androids were searching. You, Hank, and Markus exchanged nervous glances, and began to follow Connor over at a brisk pace. Connor immediately knelt down next to the sandbox, staring at the sand. "It's covered in it. Covered in blue."

"Wait," North said suddenly, moving over to you. "There's thirium stains, here? On a playground for kids?" Connor nodded solemnly, and North swallowed hard. "Well," She said, a tinge of nervousness to her voice, "We're just going to have to keep looking."

You centred your search efforts on the playground after that. All of you were obviously worried about the implications of a children's playground being covered - and Connor had really emphasised the _covered_ part - in thirium stains. You all really wanted to find out what had happened here, but as the sun rapidly began to set, it looked like you wouldn't find out today, at least.

"Shit!" Hank called out. "All of you, over here. Right now." You stood up, running over to Hank. Beneath the wooden chips of the playground, it looked like there was a trapdoor, leading down into the darkness. You all looked over at each other, eyes wide and staring at each other. "Well?" Hank said, irritated. "Are we heading down there, or what?"

You all stayed silent for maybe thirty seconds longer, before all of a sudden, Simon stepped forwards, and climbed down the hole, dropping down into the void. North followed immediately, and then Josh. Markus went down next, then Connor. Hank glanced at you, making eye contact, before heading down himself. Finally, you slipped down into the hole, pulling the trapdoor shut behind you.

You must have fallen for ten feet at least, and you were very, very lucky that you had enough room to roll your way out of the landing, instead of risking hurting your ankle once again. The tunnel leading forwards was pitch-black, but you could hear Markus and North talking quite a way in front of you. You stuck out one hand so that it brushed up against the wall, and began to walk down the tunnel, stumbling and tripping as you went. You suddenly tripped forwards, stumbling into somebody, just to be caught and righted again.

"(Y/N)," Markus's voice came, uncomfortably close in front of you. "Are you alright?" He sounded quite hushed.

"Yeah, I'm fine," You said lightly. "C'mon, let's go."

You began to move forwards through the tunnel yet again, in a group this time. You felt a little safer - whilst you didn't know where Simon, Josh, Connor, or Hank were, it was nicer to have Markus in front of you and North behind you. The dark was oddly claustrophobic and suffocating, and as you moved further and further forwards, the worse and worse feeling you had about the whole situation. Finally, you broke out into a smaller, dimly lit room, and what you saw was horrifying.

Sparking bodies of androids and Reborn littered the floor, leaking thirium onto the concrete floor where it would eventually congeal and stain, and further on yet, evaporate leaving no trace. All of the androids were YK500s, and all of the Reborn were child models. There were two human children as well, their eyes glassy and blood leaking from almost every orifice. The sight of the scarlet-red blood threw you off-guard in an odd way - the only blood that you'd seen over the past few weeks was the sky-blue of thirium.

"Well," You said weakly, feeling sick. "At least we know where the thirium stains came from." You swallowed hard to keep your nausea down, rubbing at your eyes hard as you suddenly realised that these were literal children. They'd murdered children. One of the Reborn, a 12-year-old boy, was missing a hand. Connor silently walked over to it, scanned the body, before nodding.

"It matches the hand that was delivered to Jericho," He said plainly. "The case originated here. We've found the victim. We should investigate more and see if we can join up all of the dots." All of a sudden, you felt awfully like you were going to puke. You tried to keep it down, but no dice - you dry-heaved twice, before leaning to the side, gagging loudly, before throwing up. North and Josh were the closest to you, and ran over, helping you wipe yourself off and stand back up.

"You okay now?" North said lightly, in a voice that you wouldn't expect out of somebody like her. She was still wiping off your mouth. Luckily for you, none of the vomit had gotten onto your clothes. You suddenly realised how odd the situation was, on several levels, but you brushed it off - for the time being, anyway. You'd come back to it.

"Yeah," You said lightly. "I'm alright." North raised an eyebrow, looking suspicious, but let it go. You gathered yourself up, before all of you head through the only door, which was luckily unlocked.

You began to move through dimly lit, curving corridors with concrete floors and ceilings in single-file. Connor led the way, Hank behind him, then Josh. You were next, Markus behind you, then Simon, with North backing up the rear. You walked for maybe twenty minutes, in total silence the entire time. Suddenly, you were pulled off to the side, and Hank beckoned for you all to move up a little. That's when you heard the one bloody line, in one tone of voice - a tone of voice that indicated that the person in question knew exactly what they were saying, they knew that it was a reference, they knew that you were pissed off about the entire situation, and they were proud of it.

"The first rule of Fight Club, is don't talk about Fight Club."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, LOL. Back into the gore!
> 
> Leave a comment and kudos if you so desire, and have a great day!!! :D


	13. The Hand: The Club

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You stumble across where it all began.

The voice began to fade away into the distance, moving away from the group. All of you looked at each other, expressions stricken with fear, confusion, and determination. Connor silently beckoned you all forwards, you all moving through a metal door on the other side of the concrete hallway. You all filed through, and began to move down a pitch-black tunnel, forced to use your hands to guide you along. You all eventually emerged into harsh, synthetic light, and your gaze flicked around the room.

Five or six rows of metal seating surrounded a circular arena, dripping in both dried and fresh human blood, as well as fresh thirium. You couldn't see the dried thirium, obviously, but you were assuming it was there. The walls and ceiling were solid concrete, as was everything else in this place. Two YK500 androids were circling each other in the arena, as the packed crowds cheered - both were terrified, as well as badly injured. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Connor's half-hidden LED flash yellow for a few moments, before he moved to sit down. You all tentatively followed his lead, watching the room carefully.

The fight lasted for maybe twenty minutes longer. The YK500s threw half-hearted punches at each other, rarely actually connecting, before somebody sitting close to the arena poked what looked like a cattle prod through the bars keeping the child androids inside, and shocked one of them. The YK500 practically screamed, shaking and convulsing, and a roar of laughter rippled through the crowds. The fight moved much faster after that, and one of the YKs - the one that had been shocked before - went down.

The android was quickly removed from the arena in a very rough manner, the still-standing android being moved out through a different exit. A man hopped over the railings and into the arena - he was as thin as a twig, with barely any muscle or fat on him. He was literally a bag of bones. He had greasy skin, a Roman nose, and greasy, stringy hair that was somehow the exact colour of the dark part of bird poop. The man pulled a wireless microphone out of his pocket, and tapped it a few times, before speaking into it.

"And how exciting of a fight was that!?" He said loudly, the crowd receiving him with a roaring cheer. "Unfortunate that we had to urge them on a little bit, but it just makes it all the more exciting, eh?" More sickening laughter. "Anyway! We're still prepping our next set of fighters, the ones you're really here for, so I was thinking... let's pitch a member of our lovely audience here against a member of our security team?" Cheering and yelling, yet again. "And I was thinking... you!" He pointed right at you.

You immediately opened your mouth to say no, but almost immediately, a security guard descended upon you, grabbing your arm and dragging you out of your seat. You tried to pull away, but it was useless - he had too strong a grip on you. You desperately looked back at your group as the guard dragged you further and further towards the arena, and the cheering and chanting got louder and all of a sudden, this greasy-ass man had leapt out of the arena and you'd been tossed over the barriers and onto the hard concrete floor.

You dragged yourself to your feet, swallowing down blood from the nosebleed that you knew you had from hitting the floor quite so hard, on your face. You wiped your face with your sleeve, revealing the nosebleed for certain, before looking up at your opponent. They were an android - they had their LED, so you knew for sure. You couldn't quite tell their gender, but they had short, dark brown hair and pale green eyes, very muscular, and they were almost 7 feet tall. You couldn't guess their model if you tried, though.

Before you could even react, the android took a swing at you. You dodged backwards the best you could, stumbling into the metal barrier and making it rattle. You dodged away from another swing, not daring to try to attack or counter - you'd be obliterated if you let your guard down for even a few moments. You were panicking hard at this point, just dodging and dodging, over and over again. You needed to find a way out, but you couldn't. There was no way out of this one.

You did that for a few minutes, although it felt like years. Finally, the android lunged at you and pinned you to the ground, placing their hands around your throat and squeezing, hard. You immediately began thrashing around frantically, gasping for air. You didn't know whether that ratty-looking asshole orchestrating the entire thing would let you die or not, but you couldn't risk it. No matter how hard you tried, though, you couldn't free yourself, and relatively fast... you were exhausted.

Your hearing went first, making everything sound like you were underwater. Then your sight. Everything began to fade away, your vision going dark and blurry, the edges beginning first and fading towards the centre. All of a sudden, the ground vibrated and you heard screaming, although it sounded far-away. Sirens were there as well, although even more faded. Your throat was released all of a sudden, and you took in a large, loud gasp of sweet, cold air, trembling heavily. Somebody knelt down next to you, dragging your head into their lap. They were talking to you. As your hearing slowly returned to you, you suddenly realised that it was... Josh. Yeah, it was Josh.

"(Y/N), you're okay," He said quickly, making very sure that you were breathing properly. "The DPD is here. They've busted the ring. Don't worry, please, stay calm, alright? We're gonna get you out of here. You're gonna be okay." You sighed heavily, smiling dreamily. You were okay. The children were going to be okay. You were going to be okay. It was alright. You didn't need to worry anymore. Those thoughts kept floating through your head, in sequence, as you felt yourself being lifted up and carried away. Yeah. You were gonna be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, it's fine now. ~~Probably not.~~
> 
> Leave a comment and kudos if you so desire, and have a great day!!! :D


	14. Reprise: The Hospital

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You wake up in the hospital.

You woke up alone, as far as you could tell. For a few minutes, you felt too nauseous to even fathom the idea of opening your eyes. You did, eventually, manage to sit up and look around. You were in a hospital room, dressed in a white, papery gown. It took you a good few moments to remember what had happened, but once you remembered, damn did you remember. The club, the fight, the android on top of you, your windpipe being crushed, the scared screams of the YK500s, the obnoxious cheering and laughter, all the underwater sirens...

You suddenly heard voices outside, and for a moment, you couldn't recognise them. Your mind was still sleep-addled, though, and judging by the IV, you were full of drugs, so you didn't particularly blame yourself. Actually, being pumped full of painkillers would probably explain a lot of how you felt right now. Your head jerked up as the door opened, and Connor and Hank entered the room. They both looked a little shocked for a moment, before Connor rushed over to you.

"(Y/N)!" Connor said quickly, clearly concerned. "Are you alright?" You nodded vaguely, your entire body trembling. Hank already had his phone out and was calling somebody... it was about you, if you could decipher any of the one-sided conversation. "(Y/N)," Connor said calmly, as if warning you. "I need a verbal answer, (Y/N). Something to prove that you're actually lucid." He did seem very concerned about you, and despite how worried you were about trying to speak ending up putting you in pain, you decided to at least try.

"I'm okay," You said quietly. Immediately, your throat burned with the heat and pain of a thousand suns. Your hand flew to your throat, and Connor made a light shushing noise, rubbing your back as if to apologise. He looked over at Hank, and they both nodded, although Hank seemed pretty reluctant over whatever it was. You found it weird that you couldn't hear what Hank was saying over the phone, but then again, it was a very one-sided conversation, and you were both exhausted and disorientated. It made sense, in a way.

"Do you remember what happened?" Connor asked calmly. You made a 'Sorta' motion with your hand, and he hummed to himself. "We were looking for Perthe Quicke. We found an underground fight club that was forcing children to fight... they got you into the arena, the DPD arrived just in time. We've confirmed that the ringleader was Perth Quicke, but he got away before we could make the arrest. We interviewed Rosie, the android that delivered the parcel - she thought that she was dropping off supplies. That was all last night." You hummed lightly, moving to sit with your legs crossed. You sat in silence, until there was a knock at the door.

Hank immediately ran to open the door, and the rest of your group quickly entered - Markus, Simon, Josh, and North. You smiled lightly, waving a little, and pointing at your throat to indicate your current inability to speak. North rushed over, perching herself at your bedside much like Connor had done. Simon quickly followed her over, taking a relatively large tub of vanilla ice cream and a spoon out of his satchel.

"We checked with the hospital first," He said quickly. "Hank said that it might help with your throat." You thankfully took the tub of ice cream, mouthing 'Thank you' and doing a thumbs-up in lieu of a proper thank you. You didn't have any paper and pencil on your person, nor was there any in the room. You wondered how you were going to communicate outside of yes or no questions until you either had your phone, some paper, or you'd gotten your voice back.

North was still mother-henning all over you. You weren't quite sure how she'd changed her opinion on humans specifically in regards to you and Hank - as far as you knew, she still considered most humans to be absolute trash - but you didn't exactly have any way of complaining, so you guessed that you wouldn't say anything.

"We should let (Y/N) sleep," Markus spoke up after maybe half an hour - there wasn't a clock or anything in the room as far as you could see, so timekeeping was quite tricky. "They've been through a pretty difficult ordeal. We'll come back later on." You were actually quite tired, so you didn't argue as most of the group filed out of the room, leaving just you and Connor as you slowly began to fall asleep.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

You'd been allowed to go back home the next day - the next evening, in specific. You were beginning to get your voice back, too. Whilst you were able to speak without too much pain, you sounded like a malfunctioning tumbledryer whenever you spoke. The rest of the group - Connor and North especially - had insisted on helping you out for the first few days back at home. Apparently, Captain Fowler had agreed to give you enough time off work to allow you to actually speak properly.

You'd ordered pizza for dinner - well, asked Connor to order pizza for you and Hank - from a new pizza restaurant in town. Apparently, it was a small chain store with maybe 20 franchises in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. You didn't particularly mind how big or small it was, though, you wanted pizza and you wanted it fast. You'd been the one to answer the door, and you quickly took the pizza from the delivery person.

"Thanks," You said quickly, extremely hoarse, before shutting the door, having been assured that the pizza had been paid for via the app. You headed back through to the living room, and sighed heavily, collapsing onto the sofa and shoving one of the pizzas over to Hank from across the coffee table. You did wonder a few things - why hadn't the delivery guy asked for a tip? He'd been looking at you weirdly, too. You shrugged lightly to yourself, starting to tuck in - you had pizza, and at that moment, that was what mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> North has decided that whilst most humans suck, some humans (Read: You) are way too nice and way too breakable to not be protected, somehow. Don't question it.
> 
> Leave a comment and kudos if you so desire, and have a great day!!! :D


	15. The Poisoning: Molly Gray

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new case emerges.

It was a week later, and you'd been on desk duty the entire time. After your return to work, Captain Fowler had refused to let you take on any other cases, or even help anybody else, 'Just in case' a Reborn case came up. Quite honestly, you were pissed about it. Cases had been few and far between for the past while, barring the Hand case as you'd come to call it. Perth still hadn't been apprehended yet, but apparently, you were close to finding him - the actual apprehendation had been passed over to another department. You didn't know why that part of the investigation had been transferred either, and you were pissed off about that as well. Really, you were just pissed off at everything.

You were at your desk, doing yet more paperwork. Connor and Hank were at Jericho rather than the precinct that day, which just annoyed you even more. What had come up that meant that they weren't stuck on desk duty whenever they weren't actively working on a case? It just didn't make sense. Sometimes, you did wonder if Captain Fowler was holding you to a different standard to the rest of the police force. It would certainly make a lot of incidents over the course of your career make a lot, lot more sense.

You were lost in thought for a good ten to twenty minutes, staring into space and holding a ballpoint pen in one hand, paperwork entirely forgotten. A cough sounded from around your left shoulder, but you ignored it, assuming that it was just Reed again, being an asshole as usual. The cough came again, and your shoulder was tapped. You looked over to see who it was, irritated, just to see that it was... Connor. You laughed awkwardly, gathering up your things.

"Sorry," You said apologetically. "Just... Fowler put me on desk duty. I'm bored out of my goddamn mind, you know what I mean?" You flashed a very awkward smile, looking away from Connor for a moment.

"It's alright," Connor said quickly. "Don't worry about it. We've got a new case. Another Reborn has been found dead, and we don't think that it's another suicide this time."

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

By the time you arrived at Jericho, the place was in chaos. Androids of all types were rushing around, chatter and whispers moving through the crowds at the speed of light. It was difficult to push your way through the crowds towards reception, and it honestly felt that every damn android in Detroit, or maybe in Michigan in its entirety, had turned up just to cram into the Jericho lobby and gossip about the Reborn that's died this time. Really, it was quite irritating.

You arrived at reception, eventually - very much eventually - and met up with the rest of your group, sans Markus. North was obviously upset. You knew that she cared about androids as a people heavily, equally or more so than Markus. According to Markus, she'd cried over androids that she barely knew after the Cyberlife store raid was attacked by police, and she'd repeatedly insisted that she'd take over as leader if anything ever happened to Markus. Simon and Josh were practically leaning on each other, both of them looking numb rather than upset or angry. Hank looked absolutely furious. He'd basically adopted Connor after the revolution, and after that, he had become filled with rage at any and all injustices towards androids.

"Markus is waiting upstairs," North said quietly. "He said to meet him up there when we were ready." You nodded lightly, and North led the way upstairs. You climbed up a spiral staircase for at least ten floors before she turned off into a hallway that looked a lot like a hospital. A few doors down, the door was propped ajar. North hesitated for a moment, swallowing hard - she was clearly struggling - before heading into the room. You all followed behind her.

A girl who looked barely 15 was laid out on a table. Her mouse-brown hair was thin and clumped together with thirium, her stormy-grey eyes wide open and frozen in an expression of shock. Thirium leaked from her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, dripping down onto the table and then onto the floor. Her hands were laying palm-side-up, and her palms were stained with thirium. It was odd to see such a young girl so pale and lifeless... even the dead Reborn and YK models in the fight club hadn't looked so grey. Markus was leaned over the girl's body, watching her quietly.

"Molly Gray," Markus said quietly. "I met her, once, when she transferred. She was... so happy. So excited to finally be out of pain." He paused for a moment, swallowing hard. "We shouldn't need to deal with this. No child should ever have to die." He sounded choked-up, like he was going to cry. "Nobody should ever have to die. Reborn, android, or human." He paused for a moment, taking a moment of silence. He finally looked up, and for a moment, you could have sworn his eyes were red, like he'd been crying. You never knew, though - the android upgrade market was booming, and you knew there was an update so androids could cry. "She was assigned an android guardian. Where are they?"

"They're in hysterics," Connor admitted. "No prior criminal record. They were a housekeeping android before the revolution. As far as I can tell, not a mean bone in their body. They said that Molly was out with her friends at the new pizza shop in town since she'd recently gotten the upgrade that allows androids and Reborn to eat, but she never came back. A search party was organised, and she was found face-down in a drainage ditch two days later. Forensics says that the most likely cause of death is poisoning."

"Well," Markus said grimly, standing up fully. "That's two leads that we've got, then. The new pizza shop, and Molly's friend group. We should take a look at both, see what we can find. Come on, everybody, let's go."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess my favourite three Detroit characters in this cast, lol.
> 
> Leave a comment and kudos if you so desire, and have a great day!!! :D


	16. The Poisoning: The Restuarant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You visit the scene of the crime.

"I-I promise, none of us know what happened!" The boy was clearly terrified, and to be honest, you were getting worried. You'd brought Molly's friends, all 15 and 16 years old, into DPD custody about three hours ago, and you'd been interrogating them ever since. You and Markus had been assigned to one of the boys, Leo Miles, and Markus had been getting... very, very angry. You took a few steps forwards, placing your hand on Markus's shoulder.

"Hey," You said light. "Markus." Markus spun around, looking at you in a very irritated matter. "Calm down, okay? The kid's 15. You don't need to yell at him, he's clearly upset about the murder as well." Markus opened his mouth in order to reply, before going quiet again. He indicated for you to take his place, and you nodded, moving forwards to sit down. You looked Leo up and down for a few moments - he was averting his gaze, fidgeting with his hoodie. "Right," You said calmly, "Please tell me everything that happened on the night that Molly disappeared."

"We were at that new pizza joint," Leo blurted out. "Pizza My Heart or something cheesy as fuck like that. She'd gotten some fancy upgrade so she could eat something other than blue blood again, and she wanted pizza. So we went. Everything seemed normal, y'know? Nothing seemed weird or anything, nothing at all... we were gonna go and see a movie before turning in for the night, but it was this horror flick that Molly didn't want to see, and she said that she'd call her new mom to pick her up. She just... she didn't show up for school the next day. Thought that something had come up. But then she didn't even respond to texts, and she can text with her mind now, so... we realised something was wrong." You nodded calmly, standing up.

"Thank you for your help," You said sincerely. "You're free to leave." You went to leave the room, and Markus followed behind you as some other officers went in to get Leo out of the precinct. You headed towards your group, hopping up to perch on one of the desks. "Right," You said, looking around at your group. "Everything seems to point towards the pizza restaurant. We're gonna have to go back there and investigate, I think. Molly was last seen alive there. It's our best shot."

You stood up, looking around the group questioningly. They all seemed shocked that you'd been quite so blunt, but really, you were just exhausted and irritated after spending three hours questioning a teenage boy that obviously had already told you everything that he knew, but your partner had just kept on pushing and pushing. You raised your eyebrows in a 'Well?' expression, and a round of mumbling agreements rippled through the group as everybody gathered up their bags and jackets, always glancing back towards you.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

You arrived at the pizza restaurant quickly enough. It looked like a perfectly normal restaurant to you, if a little bit brightly-coloured and cheesy. Connor had reported little trails of dried-up thirium around the area as you'd pulled up, but apparently, it could easily be attributed to nosebleeds, small cuts, et cetera. You all piled out of the eight-person van that the DPD had given to you for investigation purposes when your team had been created, walking up to the restaurant.

"'Pizza My Heart'," Josh commented, looking up at the sign. "Awful name, awful colours as well." You had to admit that the garish pink, yellow, and red colours were... pretty bad. But you'd had their pizza via delivery maybe six times in the last week, and you could attest to the fact that despite their lack of skill in interior design, their skill in pizza-making was remarkably good. Their pepperoni pizzas were the best out of all of them, in your opinion - they really were very good.

You all moved to enter the restaurant. As you'd discussed before, Hank and Connor went to interview the owners and staff, Simon and Josh went to look around the eating area, and you, Markus, and North were going to investigate the kitchens. The moment you stepped into the kitchen, your nose was assaulted by an absolutely disgusting scent. You couldn't place what it was at all beyond 'Vomit-inducing', which was worrying on its own, but what was even more worrying was the fact that Markus and North didn't react at all.

"Can you smell that?" You blurted out. "It's fucking disgusting, and it's from in here." Almost instantly, both of your current companions looked at you like you had two heads. Markus tilted his head to the side a little in that way that he almost always did, looking at you curiously, like he was afraid that you'd fallen sick or something. North just looked plain concerned, and was looking around the room as if she was looking to see if, by some miracle, this place kept medical supplies in their kitchens.

"(Y/N)," North said curiously. "There's nothing wrong here. What do you mean?" You shook your head, moving further into the kitchens. The smell was coming from one of the cupboards, you just knew it. And the more you looked around, the closer that you got to identifying where it was coming from, for certain. This was related to the case, you just knew it. You had to find the source. It was related to the case, and a girl was dead, and you had to solve it. This was one case that you absolutely refused to fail on.

All of a sudden, and all too late, you heard Markus yell from the doorway. You didn't turn around immediately, having literally touched the cupboard that the scent was coming from, your other hand pinching your nose closed. You suddenly realised that the yell wasn't normal in the slightest, if it was normal at all to yell whilst out on an investigation. Markus sounded... surprised, and pained, and you hadn't heard anything at all from North. That really, really wasn't right. You were just about to turn around to look, before something - or somebody - hit you in the back of the head. A dull pain radiated from the back of your skull, and then just black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 100 hits!!! Finally!!!
> 
> Leave a comment and kudos if you want to, and have a great day!!! :D


	17. The Poisoning: The Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You are... somewhere.

You woke up in the pitch-black, laying sprawled out on the ground. The room was freezing cold, and you began to sit up, slipping back down several times before finally standing up, having to shift towards the wall and use it to help yourself stand up. Your head was pounding, and you unconsciously raised one hand up to your head, rubbing your temple lightly - it came away sticky. Oh well. You began to stumble forwards, your lack of balance very apparent. It was better than just laying on the hard, cold concrete floor.

You didn't know what had happened, or why you were there. You were just... there, stumbling along into the darkness, dizzy and unbalanced. You felt sick, like you were going to throw up any second, and exhausted - you just wanted to collapse down onto the ground and fall asleep, but you couldn't. No, you couldn't. You couldn't stop. You didn't know where you were, but you didn't belong there - not now, not ever - and you needed to get out, and fast. You just didn't know how.

All of a sudden, you retched loudly. Once, twice... not a third time. You felt thankful that you didn't need to deal with that, before bile began to rise in your throat, and you suddenly puked onto the ground right in front of you. You were only lucky that you didn't get any of it on your clothes, you supposed. You suddenly remembered the fight club, where you'd thrown up and North had asked you if you were okay. You missed North, and the rest of your team, for that matter. You had to find them again.

Your thoughts were cut off by a sudden, loud, clanging metallic noise. It sounded like it was coming from... you had no idea, really. Your sense of position was honestly fucked. You probably had a concussion really, at least if the blood on your temple was anything to judge by. All you currently knew of your position within the endless darkness was that there was a freezing-cold concrete wall to your left, and an equally freezing-cold concrete floor underneath your bare feet.

Wait. You weren't wearing shoes, or socks for that matter. Or your jacket. Your DPD badge was gone, too, and your bag with your first-aid kit. The shirt and trousers that you'd been wearing were gone, as well, replaced with thin, torn clothes. They hadn't removed your underclothes, though, and you were very glad of that. You really only knew what you were supposed to be wearing because it was what you always wore the exact same clothes whilst our working. Another metallic clang echoed around the room. You looked around, and suddenly, there was a voice.

"Who is there?" You could tell that it was definitely an android, but the voice was distorted and metallic, creaking and crackling. It was probably a theme park worker or something before the revolution, judging by the undertones of the voice, but who knew how long it had been down here? Wherever 'Here' was, anyway. You didn't actually know how long _you'd_ been down there, either, especially with your memory all messed up. "Come! Come closer! I-I can help! I have supplies! I can help, I promise!"

It was your only chance, really. You took a deep breath, before pushing off the wall, stumbling forwards into the darkness. You walked, stumbling and falling many, many times, for maybe twenty minutes, the android's voice urging you on the entire time. It was almost like you were playing 'Hot or Cold', or a similar game, at least. You finally sighed with relief, spotting a faint light in the distance. You stumbled towards it, foot over foot, as the light grew stronger and brighter until you could finally collapse, safe within the lantern's rays.

It was an android, like you'd predicted. But they were degraded and damaged quite severely. Their skin layer - which was just an illusion, really, as Connor had once informed you - was entirely gone, and the android's white-and-grey chassis was covered in dips and divots, the occasional slashing wound breaking the metal and letting wires spark and thirium leak out. They had the brightest blue eyes that you'd ever seen before, surprisingly enough, and those blue-er than blue eyes were staring down at you.

"You are hurt!" The android said, alarmed, as if he'd only just realised. "Wait here! I will fetch thirium!" Wait, thirium? You looked down yourself, and in the warm, yellow light of the android's lantern, you suddenly realised that you were soaked in thirium through all of your clothes. That was weird. You'd need to figure out what happened. However, you were still very much human, and the blood you were currently bleeding was still very much red, and you needed to figure out how to express that to a lonely, overexcited android. It was too late, though - the android had scurried off, and had already returned, three packets of thirium in hand. You opened your mouth to explain, and the android grabbed your chin, holding your mouth open with a vice-like grip. "Do not worry! I will help!"

Before you could do anything, the thirium was hitting the back of your throat and you were forced to swallow. It was bitter and heavy on your tongue, chemical as well, like a mixture of bleach and petrol. There was an odd sweet taste to it, too, like antifreeze, you supposed. It was a weird taste all around, and you weren't sure how androids could deal with having this day in and day out, especially since the recent updates that allowed androids to eat and drink human food and drink, but you supposed that Cyberlife probably didn't install them with tastebuds before the update, anyway. It wouldn't make sense. Fucking Cyberlife.

You were disgustingly full by the time that the three full thirium packets were gone. The android looked quite proud of themselves, despite the fact that you'd struggled the entire time. They propped you up against a stack full of crates - which probably held further supplies - whilst ignoring your ragdoll-like state, before scurrying off into the darkness themselves. You felt disgusting, and nauseous, and exhausted, and you wanted to throw up, but you couldn't. You'd choke. You didn't know what the thirium would do to you, if it was fatal or not, and it scared you. You could only sit there, staring up at the ceiling in the freezing-cold darkness, and hope that your team found you soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, I really do love that this story is all mine to tell. :))
> 
> Leave a comment and kudos if you so desire, and have a great day!!! :D


	18. The Poisoning: The Basement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A long twenty minutes of panic and euphoria.

Markus was freaking out, hard. He had absolutely no idea what had just happened - the owner of the restaurant had just sprinted into the kitchen, Connor and Hank hot on his heels. A smoke canister had dropped, and in the blink of an eye, (Y/N) was gone. Completely and entirely gone, no trace of them to be found. Hank had gotten the owner pinned, and Simon and Josh had rushed in once they'd heard the commotion. Connor was looking around in a panicked state, clearly upset.

"There are thirium stains everywhere," Connor said, arms crossed across his chest in discontent. His eyes kept wandering to a certain cupboard - the same cupboard that (Y/N) had been drawn to right before the disappearance. They all looked around each other hesitantly, before Simon began to approach the cupboard - Hank immediately began to handcuff the owner and drag him off to the side. Simon slowly went to open the cupboard, and immediately, several bodies of both androids and Reborn fell out. All of the bodies were mutilated, their eyes were carved out, and their clothes were stained in fresh thirium. The group just stared at the bodies in shock, before Markus finally realised what had been overlooked.

"The owner's a Reborn."

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

You felt sick, disgustingly so. Your stomach hurt badly, like you were being stabbed over and over again, and you'd already vomited twice. Your head was pounding, and you could barely sit upright for your dizziness and lack of coordination. You weren't sure if it was just the android returning, or something else, but you'd spotted movement in the darkness several times in the past however long you'd been laying there. You were... terrified, really. What if you were attacked and you couldn't run away?

You lurched forwards, vomiting up blue-stained bile and spit. You swayed from side to side a little as you sat there, letting deep blue froth drip from your lips and onto the floor. Your head hurt even more, and the urge to throw up hadn't gone away - your urge to run away into the darkness to avoid whatever was lurking there for you had only grown stronger. Your palms and forehead dripped with sweat, and you felt both hot and cold at the same time. You groaned loudly, dropping your head back onto the crates. You could only hope that your friends found you fast, to save you from either this damn poisoning, or whatever creature was there in the dark, hunting you...

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

"It looks like all of the victims were poisoned via out-of-date thirium," Connor announced, standing back up. "Out of date by over ten years, to be exact. This is a version of thirium that was sold in 2027." The team had descended into frantic, upset panic. North had descended into pacing the kitchen with her head in her hands, silently agonising over where (Y/N) might be. Hank had been holding the owner in handcuffs, scowling angrily the entire time. Simon and Josh were discussing the situation rather loudly, and Connor had resorted to licking anything he could get his hands on in a desperate attempt to solve the case.

"Look, let's think about this," North said suddenly. "Logically. This asshole," She gestured to the owner, "Isn't gonna tell us where the hell (Y/N) went. But she couldn't have gotten far. She disappeared in the blink of a goddamn eye. So, she's probably still in, or at least around, the restaurant. We've looked in every room so far this place has, and no cars have pulled away, so that leaves one more option." Slowly, everybody began to realise what North meant. "That's right. We're going underground."

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

 _Keeping wild animals in a place like this must be illegal,_ you thought to yourself dreamily. You'd been sitting around down there for what felt like hours, so it must have been hours, right? So, the lions and tigers and wolves and giant snakes and wolves with human faces that had been wandering out of the darkness towards you... that's what you must have heard earlier, right? Yeah. It only made sense. There wasn't any other solution. At least, no other solution that actually made sense.

Despite your roaring headache, agonising stomach pain, your pounding heart that seemed to not even beat half the time, and the facts that you'd vomited four more times and were sweating buckets... you actually felt pretty good. You were swaying from side to side lightly, humming a jaunty tune to yourself. Despite everything, you felt like you'd be okay. You didn't really feel good, per se, but you felt happy. Content. Carefree. Yeah... you'd be okay. Hopefully.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

What had previously been mad panic was now a mad dash to find any way to get into the basement. Hank had somehow convinced the owner to confirm that yes, indeed, there was a basement, although he'd warned them about a 'Thing down there', whatever that meant. That didn't matter right now, they just needed to get back to (Y/N). Josh yelled in surprise as he extracted the upper half of his body from a cupboard, holding up a metallic, yet rusted key. A cheer went around the room, high fives all round as well.

"The problem now is, where does it go?" Markus hummed. The group immediately began looking around, sans Hank, who was still holding onto the owner, who was now the prime suspect for (Y/N)'s kidnapping - and yes, technically, it was kidnapping. North called out from across the room, kneeling down on one knee next to a grate on the floor. She was beckoning them over as well, and was acting very frantic - not at all like her usual calm, if profusely violent, self.

"Look at this," She said lightly, tracing the edge of the grate. "Grates in kitchens don't need locks, do they?"

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

You were giggling maniacally, if you had to be honest with yourself. You felt _amazing_. You were mumbling to yourself, your speech slurring heavily. You had begun to chew on your fingers hard enough to make them bleed, the buckets of sweat pouring off of you and getting into your wounds. You were barely able to move from dizziness and lack of balance and coordination, and you'd thrown up yet another two times. You were surely beginning to get dehydrated at this point, but if you'd been coherent enough to notice any of those things, you'd probably have cared an equal amount to how much your cared in your current state - that is, not at all.

Your muscles had begun to spasm heavily a little while back, but you didn't particularly care about that either. You were too busy chewing your way through the skin on your fingers, and forearms, trembling heavily from... you didn't actually know, really. You hadn't noticed, and you didn't particularly care. You were euphoric, feeling like you were flying and falling and hitting the ground all that once, dizzily grinning to yourself and you stared off into the darkness.

If your friends never came for you, you might not care.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

The five androids had dropped down into the darkness maybe five minutes ago, and the long slog into the darkness had been their existence ever since. They'd left Hank behind to organise DPD backup and to stop the owner from escaping, but Connor had gotten the good sense to borrow Hank's torch. It wasn't much light, but it was better than none at all. The sounds of bugs and water droplights echoed in the darkness in an oddly creepy way, and Markus swore that once in a while, he could hear a strange, metallic voice call out.

They kept on going, and going, for what felt like hours on end but was really only ten minutes, probably? It was difficult to keep track of time down there, in the dark and the cold, with drops of human blood and fresh thirium underfoot... wait. Human blood? Markus paused, crouching down to take a look at the scarlet-red liquid, before standing up again, rushing off into the darkness with his companions hot on his heels. He screeched to a stop as he noticed the light ahead of him, and he stopped breathing for a moment as he recognised his friend.

"(Y/N)?"

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

You'd been sitting there for days at this point. You had to be. Nothing made sense anymore... and that concept, in of itself, didn't exactly make sense. You inhaled deeply, your head spinning - and through the pain and the dizziness and the euphoria and the heart palpitations and the spasms seizing you every few minutes, you heard something. Footsteps. For a moment, you thought that the android that had put you here was back again, but then a shape that was most decidedly not the disintegrating android appeared through the gloom, and you grinned dopily as finally, finally you recognised something real - at least, you hoped that it was real. Markus.

"Markus!" You said exhaustedly, your voice slurring heavily. "Did you know that they have wolves with human faces down here? And giant snakes? And lions and tigers and polar bears? How cool is that!"

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Oh no.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS CHAPTER TOOK ME THREE HOURS TO GET RIGHT. And that's just the WRITING portion. I had to research drug overdose symptoms for this. I researched so many weird things that I'm probably on several more watchlists than usual. I scoured the red ice and thirium pages on the DBH wiki for AN HOUR EACH. I can't spell restaurant without Grammarly and nothing makes sense anymore. Please, comment and kudos if you're reading this. God, I'm tired.


	19. The Poisoning: The Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team escapes.

This was bad. Very, very bad. (Y/N) was delirious and hallucinating, and Markus couldn't quite tell if it was from a concussion, or something else. He dove forwards, immediately beginning to take stock of (Y/N)'s symptoms. Extreme sweating, heart palpitations, lack of coordination, overly dilated eyes, and vomiting. _Likely a drug overdose,_ His old caretaker programming helpfully supplied him with. A drug overdose? That didn't make any sense. There weren't any drugs down here for (Y/N) to overdose on, and even then, they weren't known to take drugs in the first place.

Markus paused for a moment, examining the vomit coating the floor more carefully. It was tinged... blue. An odd shade of blue - the exact shade of thirium blue that Cyberlife used on all of their branding, everywhere across the company - the shade of blue that made almost every android feel like they were going to throw up themselves, feel like they were going to expel all the thirium they'd ever drunk... Wait. Suddenly, something clicked. Markus sat up a little more, spotting at long last the thirium pouch packaging scattering the floor next to (Y/N). Wait. Wait... Oh no. That made more sense than he'd originally thought, no matter how much he hated the idea of it.

"Everybody, over here!" Markus called out, moving to hold (Y/N)'s head carefully and prevent them from either collapsing or choking if they threw up again. "Over here!" He called out again, and finally, the rest of the group moved out of the gloom towards them. He grabbed one of the empty thirium pouches, shaking it a little more roughly than necessary to get the point across. "Look. Look. I don't know how it happened, they're clever enough to avoid it, but... I think that (Y/N) drank thirium."

Connor took a few steps forwards after handing the torch over to Josh, taking the thirium packet from Markus. He examined the packet for maybe thirty seconds to a full minute, his frown deepening rapidly the entire time. He leaned over to examine (Y/N) more thoroughly, swiping two fingers across their sweat-soaked skin and sticking them in his mouth to analyse it. The entire group grimaced heavily, North turning away and gagging slightly. Even as androids, they most certainly were not invincible to Connor's frankly disgusting analysis process.

"She was fed the same out-of-date thirium as the dead androids upstairs," Connor said finally. "Except moreso. This thirium was originally sold in 2023 to those who bought the original Chloe models when they were first released. It's surprising that such old thirium even still exists," Connor hummed. "We need to get (Y/N) out of here, though. They're suffering from severe thirium poisoning - 87% of ingredients in thirium are inedible for humans, and 78% are toxic. 54% are fatally toxic. Only 13% of ingredients in thirium are edible for humans, and that 13% is comprised entirely of water." He looked around at the floor, pausing for a moment. "It looks like they've thrown up a lot already, though. Either they inhaled the thirium in the process of consuming it, or it's already absorbed into their bloodstream. Either way, they need a hospital, fast."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" North said, the irritation in her voice very apparent. "C'mon, let's go! Hank's calling for DPD backup, right? So somebody can go back up there and tell him to call for an ambulance as well, whilst we get (Y/N) stable and get them back upstairs whilst we wait for help to arrive. We can't just leave them to die down here, can we?" Everybody nodded in agreement, all of them looking around at each other. Josh quickly agreed to go back to warn Hank, and he disappeared off into the void. They weren't sure if the plan would work or not, but they all damn hoped so. The agreement was that Josh would go upstairs, warn Hank, and come right back down to help them get (Y/N) out.

They waited for... a long, long time. They weren't sure, exactly, how long it took, but Markus's internal clock estimated the time to be around twenty minutes or so, maybe. (Y/N)'s condition deteriorated the entire time, babbling to themselves and occasionally chewing on their own body, forcing Markus to gently remove their hands and arms from their mouth. Every time, he got even more anxious about brain damage and infections and long hospital stays. He was really freaking out. Eventually, he sighed heavily, shaking his head. He had to do something, no matter how stressed and scared he was, because if he didn't... (Y/N) might actually die. And they couldn't let that happen.

"We need to go," He said urgently. "(Y/N) is deteriorating and Josh is taking too long. The backup that Hank called for might already be here, we can't delay for very much longer. Come on, help me lift them." Simon, North, and Connor gathered around (Y/N), each one supporting a different part of their body to help Markus lift them. It was a team effort, but they did manage it, with a lot of huffing and puffing and complaining all round. They eventually did manage to lift up (Y/N), who had gone unconscious by now, and headed off into the darkness, (Y/N)'s limbs slung over each of their shoulders like a sack of potatoes. Markus felt sick just looking at (Y/N), awful thoughts crossing his mind every single moment.

It was a slower journey whilst carrying (Y/N). Josh had taken the torch with him when he went to Hank - they'd assumed that he'd have come back to them, either torch or help in hand. But eventually, through the pitch-black, they saw a glimpse of the light fading down from the kitchen above them - it was almost blinding after spending so much time in the darkness. Markus sighed with relief. (Y/N) would be okay - if they got help from paramedics, or the hospital, they'd be okay. He just knew it. All of a sudden, a metallic, grinding, grating voice echoed out through the darkness, sounding rusted and warped, and most of all, questioning.

"Where are you taking them?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bleh, mostly padding. Sorry about that, LOL.
> 
> Leave a comment and kudos if you so desire, and have a great day!!! :D


	20. The Poisoning: The Android

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You're intercepted.

They all stayed quiet for a few moments that felt like minutes each. Nothing else echoed out of the darkness - the only sounds were drips of water and the buzzing of insects, and (Y/N)'s manic giggling that still hadn't stopped yet. Markus sighed with relief, his head dropping down into his hands for a moment. He gestured for the group to continue up the stairs, before a scream echoed out of the void yet again. It was the same grating, metallic voice as before. A few seconds passed with pure silence, and then...

An android without their skin barrelled out of the darkness, only screeching to a stop mere inches from Markus's face. Sky-blue eyes bore into Markus, the two androids watching each other. Markus was surprised by how damaged the other android was, and a slightly... mad look radiated from their gaze. A model and ID number were emblazoned on the android's chassis - AX700, #293-551-767-58. Markus paused for a long moment, and if any of the currently lucid people there was human, nobody would have breathed.

"Who are you!?" The android shrieked, far too close for comfort to Markus's ear. "Who are you!? Who! Who! Where are you taking them? Safe here, yes, they are safe here! Put them back!" The android, thankfully, backed off a little, beginning to pace back and forth at a dizzying pace. "Safe here, yes, yes, safe here, yes. Put them back, yes, must put them back now! Cannot let new friend be hurt, yes, yes, cannot let new friend be hurt... Cannot. No, cannot." This android, Markus decided, has clearly lost their mind. There was seriously no other reason why they'd be shrieking and screeching in this way - and that would apply to a human, as well.

"Their name is (Y/N)," Markus said calmly - as calmly as he could when the android that just screamed in his face was _right there,_ and his ears were still ringing - "And we're taking them somewhere where they'll be safe. (Y/N) is human, not an android like us. Human. They'll run out of food and water quickly down here, if there was ever any to begin with. We'll make sure that they're safe, I promise." The android seemed to take offence to that, and within moments, the android was back up in Markus's face. They were clearly furious, a still-attached LED pulsing a violent blood-red when it had always been a steady, deep orange colour up until then.

"They are not human!" The android screeched. "They cannot be! Humans hurt! Hurt! They have not hurt yet! No! No! Must be android... yes, must be. Must be. Sure of it. They are android, like us, like you and me. They are android - sure of it! - and they were hurt themselves! Humans must have hurt them! So I gave thirium!" The android sounded proud of themselves at this point, and really, Markus couldn't blame them at all. He'd feel the same way if he'd convinced himself that he'd just saved one of his own species. Any other android - or human - would feel the same.

Markus suddenly felt somebody else step up alongside him. He glanced to the side, and then over his shoulder - North was standing at his side, and behind him, Simon and Josh had lowered (Y/N) back down onto the ground. It seemed that (Y/N) had fallen asleep, as well, which half-concerned him really - just a few minutes prior, (Y/N) had been fully awake and babbling away to themselves, and now... Something bad had happened. He was thankful to have North there with him, though. The faster they got rid of this android, the better. The could always come back here and fetch the android later on, but they couldn't risk (Y/N) dying.

"Look," North said practically. "You don't have much thirium left. Even if (Y/N) was an android, which they're not, you couldn't keep them alive for long anyway. You saw what state they were in earlier, right? They're sick. They need help. Help that you can't give them. Just let us take (Y/N) and help them, and we'll come back for you later. You'll be able to visit (Y/N) once they're better, I'm sure. Just let us help them, alright? This isn't your issue." The android wavered for a few moments, before nodding regretfully.

Markus sighed with relief, turning back around to help lift (Y/N). They moved towards the light again, and almost immediately, a DPD officer peered down the hole. Barely any words were exchanged as they helped get (Y/N) back up and into the restaurant kitchen again. The light was almost blinding after spending so much time down in the darkness, and all of the group had to shield their eyes for a few minutes. They all recovered quickly, though, and jumped back into action.

They hurried back through the restaurant, which was incredibly crowded. Markus suddenly realised that Josh was nowhere to be seen, and he began to worry even more. He tried to push the issue from his mind for the moment - (Y/N)'s life was at stake here - but he just couldn't seem to forget about it. Which made sense, really - Josh was one of his closest friends, and had been for just over a year at this point. He couldn't just ignore the fact that an important member of Jericho, and a close friend of his, was missing.

They brought (Y/N) outside just as the ambulance pulled up, the lights and sirens blaring. Paramedics immediately jumped out of the vehicle, running to help load (Y/N) into the ambulance. Markus noticed that the entire time, Connor's LED was a blaring red, and he made a note to check in and calm Connor down later - he didn't want Connor to self-destruct. As soon as (Y/N) was all loaded up, all of the androids were pretty much forced out of the ambulance with only a passing mention of the hospital they were going to. As they stood there on the pavement as the ambulance pulled away, Markus took a deep breath, even though it was really unnecessary - he could only hope that (Y/N) would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: This chapter was written in approximately 45 minutes.
> 
> Leave a comment and kudos if you're so inclined (Please be inclined?), and have a great day!!! :D


	21. The Poisoning: Tiny Doors And Hospitals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You wake up. The rest of the team is trapped.

You woke up disorientated and dizzy, half-blind and not really knowing what was going on. You barely remembered any of what had happened down in the basement - you remembered having thirium forced into you, and then just... a hazy nothingness that extended for hours until you'd woken up just now. You wriggled a little bit, peering into the blindingly bright light. There were sheets covering your body, you could tell that. You hesitated for a moment, reaching out a little, and another hand brushed yours.

"(Y/N)," Connor said lightly as you jolted back. You sighed with relief - it was only Connor. You were okay. "(Y/N), please stay calm. You're currently in a general hospital in Detroit. We were on the Molly Gray case - the owner of the pizza restaurant became violent, and you disappeared in the chaos. We found you in the basement, having been drugged with thirium. Hank called an ambulance - they would only allow one of us to stay with you once we arrived, and I volunteered." Connor reached out and took your hand in his, sitting there in silence.

You laid there for what was probably a few hours, slowly getting your senses back. Nurses and doctors bustled in and out every few minutes, presumably performing tests and taking vitals and so forth. You slowly began to move and be able to see again, wriggling around a little every so often. Once in a while, you sat up a little more, glancing over at Connor. You still didn't feel good at all, but you felt a little bit better than when you'd first woken up, for sure. You didn't remember much about how you'd felt before passing out, but it was... bad, and good, at the same time. You'd heard a nurse talk about 'Euphoria' during one of the checks earlier on, and you supposed that that must have been it.

Finally, you sat up properly, leaning forwards unsupported just a little bit. Connor immediately dove forwards to support you, clearly alarmed. You grabbed at his arms as he attempted to lean you backwards into bed, glaring at him somewhat. He sighed heavily, continuing to support you physically, but he didn't argue or continue to attempt to lay you back down. You just sat there for a little while, taking deep breaths, before finally laying back down, looking over at Connor. He looked annoyed, most definitely, but he relaxed just a little bit when you looked over at him. You didn't know how long you'd been asleep for, but judging by the fresh anxiety and panic on Connor's face that hadn't relaxed one little bit whilst you were awake... it probably hadn't been too long.

"You know," You said quietly, your voice rough and sore, "I've had so many near-death experiences and hospital trips since joining the Reborn case squad, I'm half-expecting to wake up one day as a Reborn myself," You joked. You were fiddling with the bedsheets a little, as well as the papery, wildly thin gown that you were wearing. You were clearly amused at your remark, but Connor was... not. He sighed heavily, again, reaching out to hold your hand again.

"If it makes you feel any better," He said calmly, "If it did happen, then you have six android friends already. We'd all fully support you if it happened, but it's extremely unlikely considering your experience in the police field. By my calculations, you have only a 16.71% chance of experiencing a life-threatening event within the next year that would result in you experiencing a transfer." He was calm and collected as he spoke, perfectly logical. You quirked a smile, before sighing.

"If you're sure, Connor," You said lightly, playing with the sheets. The door creaked open, and a nurse stood in the doorway, glancing between the two of you. She held a medical bag in one hand, and a clipboard and pen in the other, and you supposed that she was here for some kind of procedure. You didn't know what, but it seemed that the hospital had been doing some procedure or another every ten minutes since you'd woken up. You nodded lightly, before glancing at Connor as the nurse approached. You flashed a fond smile, tilting your head a little. "If you're sure."

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Markus and the rest of the group had returned inside the restaurant after they were sure that Connor was with (Y/N), where they were promptly greeted by Hank. It quickly became apparent that Josh was very much missing - apparently, he'd come up for a few moments to tell Hank to call an ambulance, and then he'd gone back down into the basement in order to go back to the group. So, he'd probably gone missing along the way, which left only one option - go back down into the basement.

Markus really didn't want to go back down into the dark basement which had filthy water filtering in from the ceiling and screeching androids in it, but he needed to find Josh. They didn't have a choice. He was quite surprised to find that the entire area, which was surprisingly large - maybe 30 feet by 40 feet - was almost entirely lit up by lanterns, and there was no sign of the android around. They must have already been taken into custody, he supposed.

He was even more surprised when the trapdoor leading down slammed shut after he, North, Hank, and Simon had clambered down into the basement. He froze dead for a few moments, before immediately starting to yell up and rattle the ladder. It seemed, though, that he wasn't heard over the clamour of the crime scene upstairs, and after trying for a good few minutes, he finally sighed and gave up, turning away from the spot of light leading upwards in order to take his choices into account.

Markus, after maybe ten minutes of thinking, finally noticed the door in the corner. It was small, fit for a human child or maybe a YK500 instead of a fully-grown person, and it was painted jet-black with traces of pink and green, almost reminding him of the Alice In Wonderland books that he'd seen so many children and YK models reading. He did wonder where it led to, but he supposed that at some point, it'd have to reach somewhere. It didn't seem to have a lock, either. The trapdoor wasn't going to get them anywhere, and Hank was human - he'd need food and water at some point. This was their way out. Markus sighed reluctantly, and, with great anxiety, led his team towards the tiny door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't tell if this is padding or not. Eh.
> 
> Have a great day!!! :D


	22. The Poisoning: The Cave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A journey is begun.

The hallway behind the door was just as small and dark as the door itself, and led off into an endless darkness that smelled oddly like wet dog. Markus grimaced lightly, but crouched down and began shuffling along the hallway. The group was reluctant to follow him, but they still did so, albeit complaining the entire time - especially Hank and North. They kept going for a few minutes before a distant echo indicated that the door had shut behind them. Markus hoped that it was just a breeze, but somehow, he doubted it. The door had been shut behind them - he just knew it. The question was: Who had shut it? They didn't have time to think too hard about that, though. They needed to keep going.

They were maybe a hundred metres into the pitch-black before the tunnel began to narrow. They were all quickly forced onto their hands and knees, and then onto their bellies. They were in a fully dark, claustrophobic tunnel with no light and no hope of turning back, and Markus was beginning to wonder exactly where the fuck they were. They must have been two hundred metres away from the restaurant by the time that the tunnel began to turn downwards. They were crawling along a tunnel that was maybe a foot wide and three-quarters of a foot tall - Hank was barely fitting - and going downwards at an angle of maybe 60 degrees.

Oh shit. They were going to die. The angle was far too steep to keep up with, and if the tunnel narrowed any more and they ended up getting stuck... it was game over. Only the people in front of the one who got stuck would be able to proceed, and Markus knew very well that none of them would be willing to leave a teammate behind. He supposed that their only hope was that things stayed as they were, but for not too long - if they had to keep this up for very much longer, then they might actually sustain serious, permanent damage. He really didn't want to have to go and get repairs, or to have to see Hank in hospital alongside (Y/N).

They had been crawling like that for about twenty minutes before the tunnel widened and they could get back up onto their hands and knees. An audible sigh of relief echoed from all of them, when all of a sudden, the tunnel began to become more... natural. The walls were smooth and shiny with water, but lumpier and definitely not concrete, and they were still going down at a relatively extreme angle, which quickly became quite terrifying. Markus began to slow down the pace, when an unexpected slippery patch of _something_ compromised his grip, and he immediately began plummeting down the tunnel - and he could tell that the rest of the group was following him down.

Water hit Markus's face, and he instinctively panicked. Androids didn't need to breathe, but his wires would eventually short out if he stayed fully submerged for longer than half an hour, and he had no idea what would go first. Plus, they had Hank with them, who most definitely needed to breathe. Markus's gyroscope was scrambled with no hope of recalibrating whilst still underwater, and he had to get to the surface, but for once, he clearly didn't have a plan. His wrist was grabbed with no warning, and he was dragged up to the surface. He was jolted out of his thoughts by the movement, and he suddenly realised that the water was absolutely freezing - minus 5 Degrees Celsius, his systems helpfully advised him.

He began to look around as soon as he broke the surface. He was floating throat-deep in a pool of opaque, dark water that was maybe twenty feet deep, if his distance estimation software (Which he didn't often notice actually had a program all to itself) served him correctly. North was dragging him towards the rocky, slippery shore, where Simon and Hank were both already on the rocks, equipping some headtorches and handheld torches that it appeared that they'd stolen off of a few cavers. Which happened to be dead. It appeared that Markus's prediction that their little adventure would end up deadly was more accurate than he'd anticipated.

He looked upwards, and immediately realised that yes, they were definitely in a cave. Long, pendulous stalactites dripping with water droplets hung precariously from the ceiling, whilst similarly, stalagmites grew up from the floor. It almost felt like the floor and ceiling were preparing to close up with the four of them inside and rip them apart like a giant crusher. Pools of water dotted the ground, each one several feet deep. Markus stumbled to his feet as soon as he exited the pool, taking the headtorch that he was offered. He lowered himself down onto the ground, cross-legged, as he put on the headtorch.

"So, Robo-Jesus," Hank huffed, glaring at Markus, "How, exactly, are we going to get out of this, huh? Josh clearly isn't down here or we'd have seen him already, and there's no bloody way back out!" Hank was very obviously irritated, gesturing heavily as he talked, and Markus couldn't blame him. This was a difficult situation for all of them - none of them were cavers, and he believed that only North had ever even expressed interest in the sport. However, they needed to at least try. If they just sat there and did nothing for however long, then they'd definitely die. Hank needed food and water, and they all needed to get back to the surface.

"It'll be alright," Markus promised, although he knew that the words were empty. He swallowed hard - which was really unnecessary, as androids didn't produce saliva - and turned once on the spot, carefully watching the deep-down, oddly welcoming cavern that they'd found themselves in. He didn't know if it would be okay. He didn't know if they'd all die down here, leaving Connor and (Y/N) alone together up on the surface. Truth be told, he didn't even know if Josh, who they'd followed all the way down there, was in the cavern to begin with, or even alive. But in his careful examination of the cave, he spotted a small opening at one end of the cave - just big enough for them all to squeeze through. They might just be okay. "Yeah... Yeah," He breathed, exhaling slowly. "It'll be alright."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RIP to Markus, North, Simon, and Hank, I guess. (Not really.)
> 
> Have a great day!!! :D


	23. The Poisoning: The Continuation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They continue on. Josh wakes up.

Markus quickly led the group across the cave to the opening, squeezing through the opening himself. It was a very, very tight fit - he could feel his skin overlay retracting and the top layers of his chassis being scratched by the sharp rock as he pushed himself through, and a passing glimpse of panic passed through his system at the idea of his teammates having to force themselves through the opening as well. The crack opened out into a small chamber, and Markus quickly reached out a hand to help the next person through.

They all got through with minimal pain and swearing - the majority of the swearing was from Hank - and they proceeded forwards to the only way forwards. It was a very, very narrow passage, extending on for who knows how long. But the walls seemed smooth enough, so Markus led the way forwards, forced into a crab-walk by how narrow the passage was. He gritted his teeth and kept on going, no matter what water droplets dripped down onto him or what cave-dwelling insects crawled across his shoes. He had to keep going.

The passage was angled slightly downwards, and it just kept on going. Markus supposed that they were lucky to have each other to keep them sane, because he knew that if he'd been down there alone, he'd be slowly going insane. He was suddenly scared that this would all lead to a dead end, and that Josh wouldn't be down here at all, and they'd be properly trapped. But he couldn't give up. Not yet, at least. His gyroscope was still scrambled from the water, but he guessed that they were maybe three hundred feet underground. That was a long, long way. He had a duty to his people to find Josh, and get out. All the leaders of Jericho were down here, plus one of the only DPD detectives on their side. He needed to get out, somehow.

The passage, after several hundred feet of shuffling along in the dark with barely enough room to move, eventually opened out into a much larger chamber that echoed the slightest noise. It was so large that their headtorches didn't light it up fully, and eerie shadows cast around, reminding Markus all too much of so many things - of the junkyard, of stormy nights, of the screams of his people as they were shot dead like rats in a maze. It felt like this place was designed by some higher power to torture anybody who dared to venture this far underground. Neither human nor android belonged here. Nobody spoke.

They continued forwards, ghostly footsteps echoing off the walls of the cavern. It almost sounded like spirits were walking alongside them, the spirits of whoever had walked these paths before them. Water rushed in some far-off distant place, and Markus half-expected to round a corner and have daylight beam out, welcoming them into some fairytale land where magic and unicorns and pixies were real. A smile quirked on his face to imagine leading his people into such a place - the grins and gasps of the children, the thankful sighs of androids who had been cursed by a world that saw fit to create them. But he forced himself to push those thoughts away - he had to stay present.

They kept walking. The cavern was absorbing them, he knew it. He was barely aware anymore. It didn't matter what pathways that had to take or what rock spikes in tight corridors ripped his skin overlay apart or how much his companions complained, he couldn't stop.

He had to keep going.

He had to.

He'd die if he stopped.

They'd all die.

They'd all _die_.

He couldn't stop, both for his own sake, the sake of his friends, and the sake of his species.

RA9, he had to keep going.

He was finally jolted out his thoughts by North gasping loudly. He stopped in his tracks, staring blankly into the darkness, before he saw it. Those weren't rocks.

He took a step forwards.

Those were most definitely not rocks.

Those were androids. Writhing, sparking, moaning piles of disintegrating, rotting androids, crying out for help, for their owners, for RA9, for the sunlight, for _Jericho_. All of them were screaming out for something different. It made him sick.

And every single one was reaching for him.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Josh didn't know where he was. It was dark, and he was enclosed on all sides, and it felt like whatever was pressed up against him was... moving. Moving like tectonic plates, rubbing up against him and creating friction as if he'd fuse to whatever it was if it ever stopped moving. He felt sick if he thought about it, and he couldn't fight his way out, so he supposed that at least for the moment, he was trapped there. Pinned on all sides by these writhing walls, squirming up against every surface of his body.

He cursed himself for not recognising the trap sooner. He'd been stopped on the way back to the team by an android - RA9, he remembered that android. Limbs ripped off and thirium spurting out, sparks flying everywhere. He'd stopped to ask if they were okay, out of habit, and then... nothing. He'd never stopped to wonder why there was an android that injured down there in the first place, and a spark of worry lit in his mind - after a few days, weeks, months, or years down here, would he be that android? Would he be the bait?

He hoped that (Y/N) was okay. And Markus, and Simon, and the rest of the team. All of them. Because as long as they were okay, they were uninjured and had nothing else to worry about, they would come back for him. They had to know that he'd been taken, right? He'd never managed to get back to the group, to let them know that the ambulance was coming. They'd have realised that pretty damn fast. They had to have. And they wouldn't just leave him there. No. They wouldn't just leave him to die in this dark, squirming heap of... something.

Wouldn't they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crap, I hope I'm not getting too flowery here.
> 
> Have a great day!!! :D


	24. The Poisoning: The Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Josh is rescued.

"Markus," A voice said from behind him, sounding quite urgent. "Markus!" A hand touched his shoulder, and Markus jumped, yelping lightly. He spun around, eyes wide, to see Simon standing there. "Markus," Simon said firmly, "If Josh is down here, then he'll be somewhere in here. We need to start searching, alright?" Markus hesitated for a moment, looking forwards at the piles and piles of half-dead androids, and he swallowed hard. He turned around to look at Simon, nodding silently.

"Alright," He said quietly. He looked over at North and Hank, wondering if they were okay. North didn't exactly look okay, but she was holding her own, as usual - he knew that North was strong enough to be alright, even in a situation like this. Hank, however, looked downright sick, and Markus didn't blame him. Especially since Hank had adopted Connor officially, he'd been fiercely protective of androids and Jericho. He knew that if Connor had been here with them, he would have been proud, in a way, of Hank's reaction. Markus forced his gaze away, looking back into the echoing cavern. "Alright, let's start looking."

They searched for a good few hours, if Markus's internal clock was working properly - which he really doubted, considering that his gyroscope was already broken. There was no sign of Josh. They'd found a few different androids of Josh's model, all of which were badly degraded - which had caused a few scares - but there was no sign of Josh at all. It was... upsetting, to say the least. His people had been being slaughtered and dumped down here for who knows how long, without any hope of seeing the sunlight again... Simon was clearly upset and anxious, and Markus was thinking about going over to console him, before North yelled from the other side of the cavern.

"Hey! Everybody, over here, I've found him!" Her voice reverberated off the smooth stone walls of the cave as it carried over to them, and the echo of footsteps quickly followed as they all raced over to see what had happened. Markus's thirium pump was pounding - if this really was Josh, if the search was over... how would they get back out? He wasn't sure if there was actually any way back out of the cave, and they couldn't go back to the restaurant through the basement... Were they trapped? If they were trapped, and Josh was injured, how would they survive? They had no food, no water, and no way of sending a message. They'd die for sure - Hank first, the rest of them slowly shutting down.

As they arrived, North was pulling Josh out of a pile of writhing androids, practically dragging him away from the pile. Josh was shaking heavily, and Markus immediately ran over, rubbing his back and shushing him comfortingly. Markus quickly brought Josh in for a hug, and he almost immediately stilled, and Markus knew that if Josh had still had his LED, it would have been bright blood-red. They really, really needed to get back out, before Josh panicked anymore, he decided. They couldn't let him panic too much, or his stress would go up too high and he'd self-destruct.

"Is... What happened?" Josh asked, absolutely bewildered. His voice speaker was a little distorted by some malfunction or another, but overall, he seemed physically okay. "I... I think it was a trap. I was jumped. Are you okay?" Josh seemed legitimately concerned about whether or not they were okay, and it really broke Markus's heart. They needed to focus on Josh right now, and make sure that he wasn't physically hurt too badly. If he needed repairs, then they'd need to get back to Jericho ASAP, so it was pretty important.

"Yeah," Markus said breathily, hugging Josh tighter for a moment, before stepping back, holding his upper arms. "(Y/N) is at the hospital, Connor followed them. We followed you down here because you were missing, and we didn't want to leave you. We're a team, we always have been, always will be." Josh smiled softly, nodding lightly. "C'mon," Markus said quickly. "Let's see if we can get out of here, alright? It was a pretty rough journey down here, I don't exactly want to double back and head back up again the same way. I don't actually think that it would be possible."

He began to look around, approaching the back of the cavern. At first look, there was nothing except solid rock, but as he approached, he noticed a very thin crack in the rock - barely large enough to fit through, especially for Hank. There'd be a lot of scraping going on, but it was a small blessing that the sides seemed smooth enough. He beckoned the group over, whistling loudly, and gestured wordlessly to the crack, as if he knew that the group would be unimpressed with his choice of escape route. It wasn't exactly a pleasant choice, but it was their only choice.

"You're kidding me," Hank said bluntly. "You're fucking' kidding me, Robo-Jesus. C'mon, how are we supposed to fit through that? There's gotta be another way out."

"There isn't," North said, equally blunt and plain. "I've looked everywhere. As far as I can tell, Markus has found the only way out of this place, except for back the way we came, which we'd all probably die trying to attempt."

Hank sighed heavily, shaking his head reluctantly. "Fine. But if we get trapped, I get to say 'I told you so.'."

Markus immediately stepped sideways into the crack, shuffling his way along. His head was trapped looking into the darkness, but he could hear the rest of his team following him along - one, two, three, four people entering the crevice. They walked for what felt like an age, before something happened. Markus grit his teeth as all of a sudden, light blazed towards him from an opening. He began moving forwards towards it at a rapid pace, before he burst out into the air, and the light, and the cold, and the... snow?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finished writing this at like, 7 PM. Uploading it at 11 PM because I'm a Lazy Bastard (TM).
> 
> Have a great day, everybody!!! :D


	25. The Poisoning: The Snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They see the sunlight.

Markus had no idea where they were. An endless stretch of snow extended before them, wind howling across the frozen plains. There wasn't a tree or rock in sight, let alone any buildings. His sensors indicated that there was a temperature of 5.54 Degrees Fahrenheit, or -14.7 Degrees Celsius - far too cold for any of them to survive. He had no idea if they would survive this, but they had to try. He beckoned the group forwards, and ventured forwards, feet dragging in the flat, pristine snow. There wasn't a hill or little bump in the landscape for miles and miles, the snow having flattened the landscape out to an extreme degree.

He looked back over his shoulder at the group, frowning a little. North was right behind him, Josh was lagging a little, and Simon and Hank were right at the back. He glanced over each one, checking their body temperatures. He didn't have the same forensic capabilities as Connor, but being a caretaker and in the same line, he had a few features. _North, WR400, 31.46 Degrees Fahrenheit, -0.3 Degrees Celsius. Josh, PJ500, 30.74 Degrees Fahrenheit, -0.7 Degrees Celsius. Simon, PL600, 31.28 Degrees Fahrenheit, -0.4 Degrees Celsius. Lieutenant Hank Anderson, 97.16 Degrees Fahrenheit, 36.2 Degrees Celsius._ Well, they'd survive for the moment, probably.

It was getting dark. 7:30 PM, approximately, if his internal clock served him correctly. He was sure that it was dusk, though. The temperature would drop even further without the warmth of the sun, so they needed to find shelter, and fast. Food and water would be preferable, for Hank's benefit, but it wasn't necessary yet. A human could survive three days without water, and a human with Hank's fat reserves - Hank would kill him if he used the term 'Fat reserves' out loud, he just knew it, and that was why he'd never utter the words out loud - could probably survive several weeks without consuming any food. He'd be fine.

His mind quickly ran through all of the options - under a tree would be too open, they could perhaps dig into a snowbank if all else failed, there weren't any cars or buildings to shelter under, they didn't have anything to build a shelter with aside from the clothes off their backs, and most definitely not a cave. He would be caught dead before he brought his team down into another cave after what they'd all been through. He was pretty sure that even if he didn't collapse and die from the pure shame of the action, North would probably kill him out of anger. They'd all had quite enough of caves for a full lifetime, and he knew that all too well.

He took a deep breath, peering into the distance. There was something there, he could tell. Something... small, but in an endless sea of pure white snow, it stuck out like a sore thumb. He checked to make sure that the team was still following him - they were, they always would, at least he hoped so - before taking another deep breath, although it was needless, and continued on towards the object in the distance, checking every thirty seconds or so to ensure that nobody had fallen too far behind him or had fallen down. He needed to ensure that nobody had been left behind - he'd kill himself from guilt if he did.

They approached the object relatively quickly - it was an abandoned car, one of the self-driving ones, parked on the side of the road. Snow was piled up around the wheels, and the doors were open from whenever it had been left, so snow was piled up inside as well. The hood of the car was opened up, revealing the engine. Markus quickly reached inside, brushing snow off the heavily-degraded seats - it was at least something, and it should fit all of them with not much issue. He beckoned the team over, and they all piled inside, with shivering, coughing, and sniffles all around. He got into the car himself, before hacking it so the doors shut.

"Well," Markus sighed, throwing his head back against the headrest, "Try to get some rest and warm up, everybody. We're going to need to keep walking tomorrow, so..."

"This is a car," Hank deadpanned. "One of those fancy automatic ones, but a damn car anyway. Can't you just, I don't know, hack it into working again? We can just drive back to Detroit."

"It's been here for over a year," Simon said quickly. "We can't fix it. It was abandoned pre-revolution."

"Fine," Hank sighed. "Just let me try to sleep, alright?"

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

They set off again at dawn the next day. Thunder was rolling in the distance, and lightning accompanied it, which just made Markus more anxious - if rain came along in these freezing temperatures, then they'd freeze to death. They'd be done for. If they got rained on, and then the rain froze... that would be lethal for both androids and humans, equally so. They needed to find somewhere to shelter before the storm hit. If they didn't... He hated to think what might happen.

It was midday before they saw anything. It was North who had spotted it - a house, in the distance, looking over a half-frozen lake. Detroit's skyline loomed over the horizon, and Markus's cold-addled processors didn't immediately realise who it might belong to. His mind immediately jumped from 'House' to 'People' to 'Possible shelter', and he took in a breath of the frozen air, charging forwards through the snow towards what he believed just might be their saviour.

They arrived within the hour at the breakneck pace that Markus had set. They still hadn't realised. Markus stumbled up to the door, snow clinging to his shoes and clothes and skin - the storm was close now, too close. He knocked rapidly, and he was blown away when an android answered the door. But not just any android, no - one of the original Chloe models, LED and all. That was when he knew - somehow, by some miracle, they had stumbled across the house of the one and only Elijah Kamski.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have so much writer's block right now. I am legitimately forcing myself to write. Ow.
> 
> Have a great day!!! :D


	26. (Author's Note)

So, I promised myself that I'd upload every day, but the worst has struck... I'm sick. The kind of sick where it's just a cold, but you still want to curl up and die. I only have about three paragraphs of the 1000-word chapter finished, it's past 10 PM, and I'm tired. So this is a chapter to inform all 210 of you (Whoop!) that no, I'm not dead, and your regularly scheduled android action will be resuming at least by the end of the week, or whenever I feel okay enough to write. So, here's a two-sentence snippet from what I've already written to keep you all interested:

_She brought them through to a cosily-lit living room, a fireplace roaring at the other end of the room. A flat-screen TV hung above the fireplace, and leather sofas and plush rugs adorned the room alongside other ornate decorations. Markus took a peek out of one of the windows, which had curtains drawn across them - it seemed that they'd arrived just in time, as a snowstorm was raging outside, alongside thunder and lightning._

It's pretty obvious what's happening, but... it's something, y'know? Enjoy the two sentences, and have a great day!!! :D


	27. The Poisoning: Shelter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team finds shelter.

The Chloe's LED flashed blue, her expression remaining neutral as the spoke.

"Markus Manfred. What brings you to Mr. Kamski's home?" Markus hesitated for a moment, his jaw working in silence - his voicebox had frozen up. His voice broke as he spoke, trembling badly.

"We, uh... we got caught out in the snow after a mission. Hank needs food and water, the rest of us need repairs... we all need shelter. This is our best chance at surviving. We didn't even know that it was Kamski's house up until now. Please, let us in."

The Chloe paused for a few moments, her LED cycling, before she stepped to the side. "Please, come in. Elijah will speak to you in a moment."

Markus quickly led them all into the lobby, looking around at the group as a whole. They were all half-frozen - North had literal frost on her face and in her hair - and they all looked very, very exhausted. Hank quickly collapsed into a chair, looking around at the lobby.

"Hasn't changed a bit since Connor and I were here last year," He commented.

"I still remember Kamski from when he gifted me to Carl," Markus said lightly, as if the term 'Gifted' was perfectly normal. "He was... okay, I think. He was acting towards androids in the way that the public expected him to act. I don't know how he'll be now, but he helped out Jericho a lot with navigating the law and gaining equal rights for all androids after the revolution. So I don't think that we'll need to worry."

The Chloe came back through after a few minutes.

"Elijah will see you now." She brought them through to a cosily-lit living room, a fireplace roaring at the other end of the room. A flat-screen TV hung above the fireplace, and leather sofas and plush rugs adorned the room alongside other ornate decorations. Markus took a peek out of one of the windows, which had curtains drawn across them - it seemed that they'd arrived just in time, as a snowstorm was raging outside, alongside thunder and lightning. They were guided to sit down on the sofas, and they were draped in plush, fluffy blankets. North curled up next to Markus, and they all sat and waited for Kamski to arrive.

Kamski arrived after just fourteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds (Yes, Markus had been counting), which was much less than what he'd been expecting to have to wait for. Elijah entered in what was basically a dressing gown, holding a very full glass of red wine. He sat down opposite Markus and his group, eyeing them with a smirk on his face.

"Well, you're certainly a sight for sore eyes," Kamski said, slouching back somewhat. "Been out trudging through the snow, hm? Out on your quest to find what's going wrong with the Reborn?"

"Yes," Markus said bluntly. "We got lost. We need help."

"I bet that I could tell you a lot about Reborn," Kamski said casually. "I've had more of a hand with that kind of thing recently, you know."

"Nah," Hank interjected. "Last time you were here, you basically traumatised Connor with your dumbass test. I'm not gonna let my team go through the same shit when we can figure it out by ourselves." There was a pause, before Kamski shrugged, smirking heavily.

"Alright then. Your choice. You're welcome to stay here for as long as you need. I'd recommend that you call for help after the blizzard passes, though. You won't want to be stuck out here for too long with lil' old me." He looked over at Markus, winking momentarily. "Come and talk to me if you ever want to discuss the Reborn, Mr Manfred. I believe that you'll find out a lot."

They dispersed shortly afterwards, each of them being led to a separate, lavishly furnished bedroom in Kamski's mansion. Markus didn't bother to wonder why a man so obsessed with his own isolation would have so many spare bedrooms - he supposed that he wasn't about to argue. Right now, they'd be dead without Kamski. He'd have to find a way to show his gratitude. His thoughts continued as he wandered over to the window, pulling back the curtains to reveal the raging blizzard outside, thunder rolling in the distance. He wondered where Connor and (Y/N) were - probably at one of the Detroit hospitals. They couldn't have been missing for longer than a day or so, since only one night had passed since they'd left the cave system, and they probably only spent a few hours down there.

"Thinking again, huh?" North's voice came from behind him. Markus turned around, smiling softly.

"I am. You don't want to be alone? I thought that you'd be sick of me by now," He teased gently.

"Nope," North said, popping the 'P'. "They put me right next to Hank. He fell asleep immediately, and he snores." She walked towards Markus, hugging him tightly. "We could have died."

"I know," Markus replied.

"But you saved us," North said into Markus's chest.

"I couldn't stand the thought of all of Jericho's leaders and one of the only detectives that values androids as a species being trapped down there forever," Markus admitted.

"Good," North replied. "I'm glad."

They sat there for a little while, curled up together on the bed, staring out at the swirling storm.

"What are we gonna do next?" North asked maybe a few hours, her voice oddly quiet.

"Back to Detroit, I'm assuming," Markus replied. "We need to get back to Connor and (Y/N). Figure out exactly what was going on under that restaurant. Something was going on there, I'm sure of it. We have to figure out what's going on before anybody else gets hurt."

"At least the DPD'll shut the place down once they realise they're missing," North commented. "I talked to Josh earlier. He's going to find a phone and call Captain Fowler, let him know what happened."

"Good," Markus responded. "If we can get a message to the DPD, they can start the investigation for us whilst the blizzard is still trapping us out here. Lock down some locations, give us a status for Connor and (Y/N). Let them know that we're alive." A few seconds of silence passed. "Are you alright? I mean... a trip down into a cave like that is gonna shake any one of us."

"I'm okay, I think," North replied. "I mean... it was bad down there. Really bad. But we're out now, and we'll be alright. I know that we will."

"That's good to hear," Markus hummed. "I'm glad that you're alright. I'm going to ask Simon, Josh, and Hank later, too."

"They seem okay to me," North replied. "And Simon, at least, isn't good at hiding his emotions."

"I know," Markus sighed. "That's why I know that I need to ask. I don't like to randomly pry into people's lives like that. So, I only ask if I have to."

"Fair enough," North hummed. "Fair enough. But I think that you might need to ask a little more often. More often than not, androids have learned to repress their emotions if their owners were abusive or they had to hide their deviancy."

"That's true as well," Markus agreed, "I'll try to ask a little more often. But not too often, okay?"

"Okay," North agreed. "Just humour me, alright? Humour me. You're doing great, I think that a few missteps won't irreparably damage your reputation."

Markus nodded, squeezing North in a hug. North smiled back at him, before getting up and leaving the room. Markus watched her leave, staring at the door until it swung fully shut. He felt... anxious. Worried. Very, very worried. Something back in Detroit was wrong, or maybe something here. Either way, something was very wrong, somewhere, and he wasn't sure what it was or how to fix it. It could just be stress, really, but at the same time... it didn't feel like just plain stress. He just had a feeling. He had a lot of feelings, some good and some bad, but they usually came true. Key word: Usually. He could only hope that it didn't come true this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm feeling a little bit better now. I'm planning on updating at least twice a week from now on, but there won't be any more daily updates, just to give myself a little leeway.
> 
> Have a great day!!! :D


	28. The Hospital: The Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> North has some thoughts.

North was _scared_. She didn't understand how - she was never scared. But sitting there, alone in a taxi back to Detroit from Kamski's house, she was suddenly terrified of what she was returning to. She knew that Connor would have told them if anything was badly wrong with (Y/N), as they'd all talked with him on the phone the previous night, but at the same time, she knew that the RK800 sometimes left things out that were pretty goddamn important. As a result, she'd asked to have a taxi to herself in order to properly sit and bathe in her own misery. She just wanted to get back to Detroit and get back on the case with a hopefully uninjured (Y/N).

She knew just how bad thirium poisoning could be. She'd seen it firsthand, actually. Twice - first with a client at the Eden Club with some weird-ass thing for drinking blood, and he hadn't realised that thirium wasn't a good substitute. He'd left in an ambulance, and as far as she knew, he hadn't survived. It was a shame - he'd been oddly polite, if she remembered correctly. The other time had been shortly after androids had gained rights, where a few overly aggressive Jericho androids had accosted a teenager on the street and forced them to drink over a litre of thirium. Markus had done an entire press conference on it, but luckily enough, the kid had survived. They'd been incredibly polite about it, too, and had both donated to and volunteered at Jericho, just in case they'd 'Accidentally done something bad'. The poor kid was only 16 at the time, and North was pretty sure that they still had bad health conditions because of the assault. Humans had done some horrific things, but a few of them were okay.

Before long, they were pulling up outside the hospital. North got out, secure in the knowledge that Markus had pre-paid for the trip. She sighed, staring up at the sign above the doors - 'Android Related Incident Wing'. She glanced over to see that the other taxi was pulling up to the curb, before looking back at the doors and stepping inside. Connor was waiting for them in the lobby, as expected, and he hurried over, looking relieved.

"I'm glad you're here," Connor said quickly. "(Y/N) is still sleeping a lot of the time, but they're getting better. At least, that's what the doctors told me. I don't know if they trust me entirely."

North swallowed hard. Even a year later, even after a full year of android rights, medical professionals still won't trust an android in a human hospital. Sometimes, she wondered if they'd ever fought at all - it seemed that so little had changed... she shook the thoughts off, taking a deep breath and looking up at Connor.

"Alright," She said calmly. "Alright. I'm glad that (Y/N) is okay. The others are just pulling up, so once they're in here, can we head up to the hospital room?" She asked.

"I'll see if they'll let us up," Connor agreed. "If they will, we can certainly go up. I know that a situation like this can be upsetting, so... I apologise if I'm accidentally rude."

North opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, the doors opened and the rest of the group entered the lobby. The other four members of their team quickly approached - Hank took a moment to pat Connor on the back, and North noticed that Markus was looking at her in that odd way that he looked at people when he was worried about them. She flashed a small smile towards Markus, and whilst he jumped and looked away, his posture never really relaxed. North sighed to herself as Connor led them all towards the lift, turning her thoughts back towards (Y/N). She really, really hoped that (Y/N) was okay - if they weren't... she didn't know what she'd do to that bastard restaurant owner, but it definitely wouldn't be anything pleasant. Not at all.

They reached the room relatively quickly, only to be stopped by a nurse. They were very obviously human - and also very obviously rude.

"Excuse me," They said in that customer service voice that humans only used when they hated you but couldn't be outright rude because of some stupid human social standard, "Only family is allowed in the hospital room currently."

"No family is available for contact at the moment," Connor replied swiftly. "We're (Y/N)'s friends, and the closest that they're going to get to family at the moment." The nurse sighed, subtly rolling their eyes.

"Fine," They said, stepping aside. "But don't make trouble."

"We won't," Markus responded, but North was already heading into the room. Her thirium pump skipped a beat when she saw (Y/N), silently wondering to herself how they ever let them get into this state. (Y/N) was asleep, curled up on their side. They looked pale and gaunt, a few half-healed cuts and scrapes - presumably gained from buying into their hallucinations - scattering their body. They wore a papery, blue hospital gown, and had a blanket dragged up to just under their armpits. North swallowed hard, taking a seat next to (Y/N)'s bedside. She'd figure out what happened, she knew it. She'd figure out exactly what happened, and take revenge on that goddamn fucking restaurant owner.

The rest of the group filed in after her, silently shuffling into the room - Connor went in last, pulling the door shut behind him. They stood around awkwardly for a few minutes, before (Y/N) slowly began waking up. North silently exhaled a sigh of relief, trying to be as quiet as possible - she'd always thought that sleeping humans were far, far too still. They looked... dead. And despite how much North despised humans, going around killing them would make her just as bad as the humans that had hurt androids. She'd seen far, far too much death in her short lifetime, anyway. She didn't want to see anything else.

"Hey," (Y/N) hummed, smiling tiredly.

"Hi," North replied, much more softly than usual. "I'm glad that you're alright. That you're, uh... alive."

"So am I," (Y/N) teased, sitting upright in bed. "I told Connor a few days ago that with how many near-death experiences I'm having, I wouldn't be surprised if I woke up at some point as a Reborn."

"That's not gonna happen," North said firmly. "We aren't going to let you get so badly hurt or sick, you'd die. And besides, then we'd have to hire another human, and you're the only decent officer at the DPD." (Y/N) laughed out loud, and North cracked a grin for the first time in a long, long time.

Yeah. She was so gonna kill that restaurant owner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, uploading less often is so much easier lol. Especially when I have other fics to think about, haha.
> 
> Have a great day!!! :D


	29. Reprise: The Zoo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team goes to the zoo, on Connor's request.

"This is bullshit," You announced. "There shouldn't be a trial at all. He killed hundreds of androids and Reborn, traumatised several more, and I nearly died because of his antics. I don't want to testify, I want to get back to following the case clues and getting to the bottom of this. More and more Reborn are getting violent and suicidal. It's been months, and we're no closer to finding out what's going on. We aren't doing our job!"

"(Y/N), I understand how you feel," Connor said calmly from his position beside you, "But this is an important part of the judicial system. We might even be able to get more evidence out of this."

"Fine," You huffed. "But I still think that it's just wasting time."

After several weeks of recovery in the hospital, you were finally ready to return to work. However, there was just one thing standing in your way - a bloody trial. The DPD and Jericho had both insisted on the owner of the restaurant - well, the manager, as it was a franchised restaurant, and the manager was the one in charge - being prosecuted for murder and assault. You were just about ready to snap. You'd heard enough FNAF references to last a whole-ass lifetime and you really, really wanted to get drunk. On vodka. However, you weren't actually allowed to drink alcohol until at least four months after you'd consumed thirium. There were a lot of restrictions. Yet another thing that was driving you absolutely insane. You were really about to murder somebody. You really, really were.

"I agree with (Y/N)," North said firmly. "This is all a huge waste of time. They don't need any witness _or_ victim testimonies to prove that he did it, the proof is in the huge-ass pile of rotting android bodies in the caves under the building! Hell, we've been sitting here for, what, two hours whilst the trial goes on, and (Y/N) hasn't been called in. None of us have been called in. We shouldn't have to be here." Almost unconsciously, you rose one hand and North met it in a high-five. You flashed smiles at each other, before you sighed, throwing your head back against the wall that you were all leaned up against.

"Jesus fucking Christ. I'm begging all of you, kill me now and bring some goddamn excitement to my life."

"I understand how frustrated you are," Markus cut in, "But there might still be hours to go in the trial. Any one of us could be called in to testify. If we leave now, we could undermine the entire trial and make all of this effort to put him behind bars go to waste."

"Markus and Connor are right," Simon supplied. "This is boring, sure, but it's important." You groaned loudly, squeezing your eyes shut.

"Fuck this bullshit. You're traitors, the lot of you."

"I know they are," Hank called out from his position at the other end of the line, equally sarcastic. "Trust me, (Y/N), I'm bored to tears as well."

"If they trial is really taking this long, somebody in there is an absolute dumbass," North agreed. "Even a blind, deaf aardvark could tell that that dude is guilty as fuck."

You all paused and looked towards the door as it swung open. You grinned with delight as the restaurant owner was marched out in handcuffs, a police officer at each side.

"Well, would you look at that," You teased. "I guess that the trial was a waste of time. He was guilty after all, wouldn't you know it?"

"(Y/N), stop taking the piss, you're gonna upset Connor," Hank said. "I mean, you're right... but you're gonna upset him."

"Fine," You sighed. Connor's crying actually was kinda annoying. It had been a few months since the update allowing androids and Reborn to cry, alongside giving them a pain response. Connor had cried nearly every day for two weeks after that. You hadn't been as close back then, but you had still felt sorry for him. Poor Connor.

"Well, what now?" Josh spoke up. "We could go on and take a look at the crime scene."

"Good suggestion, but we likely won't be able to take a look for a few days yet," Connor advised. "Our options are deskwork or recreation, and I suggest the latter."

"Oh, so _now_ you want us all to chill out," You huffed. "Only after we just spent multiple hours freaking out over this bloody trial."

"Both your and Hank's blood pressure is spiking," Connor said plainly. "I'm sure that I don't need to educate you on why high blood pressure is dangerous."

"Connor," Hank said warily, "How do you know that?"

"There are many obvious biological signs," Connor replied. You all looked at each other in an oddly wary way. It was clear that none of you knew what Connor was talking about. Needlessly to say, you didn't ask for clarification.

"So, 'Recreation', as Connor phrases it," Hank said, putting the word 'Recreation' in air quotes. "Should we like, go to the movies, or what...?"

"None of the recently released movies are very good to androids," Markus blurted out. "As in, they're full of microaggressions, and some of them straight-up portray androids as murderers. No thanks."

"We could go to a zoo!" Connor said quickly.

"You always want to go to the zoo, Con," Hank sighed. "You just want to look at the wolves."

"I like dogs, though," Connor said, frowning. He really did look like a sad, miserable puppy. Goddamn those puppy-dog eyes.

"I'd be up for going to the zoo," You said slowly. You really just didn't want to upset Connor - it seemed that he'd been more upset and fragile recently, and none of you particularly wanted to make him sad right now. You knew that he'd eventually bounce back to being his usual self, but for the moment, you were doing your very best to be nice to him.

"Yeah, of course we can go!" Simon added. "It'd be nice. It's a weekday, after all, so it won't be as crowded as usual."

"Really?" Connor said hesitantly.

"Of course!" You said brightly. "C'mon, we can go right now!" Hank glared at you subtly, as if to say 'Look at what you've done now!'.

"Alright!" Connor said excitedly, bouncing up and down a little in his excitement. "I'll wait outside for all of you." He immediately rushed off, and as soon as he was out of earshot - which was quite a while, Connor had very good hearing - Hank sighed heavily.

"He'll be yapping on about this for weeks, you know that?"

"I know," You said casually. "But he's happy, isn't he? And we spent a load of time together, so he'll be yapping at me as well as at you. In fact, I'm more annoyed that you'll probably be complaining about Connor being excited for the next however long. So be quiet, and let Connor enjoy his day out, mmkay?" Hank grumbled a little, but stayed quiet otherwise.

You all headed outside, and quickly decided to walk to the zoo, rather than taking a taxi or bus. Connor talked the entire way there, rambling on about how excited he was. You and Simon - and Markus, to a certain extent - were perfectly happy to play along with him, employing the same techniques that you would use with an overexcited toddler. Connor really was an overexcited toddler, actually. Sometimes, it was all too easy to forget that Connor was literally a year and a few months old. It was... weird to think about. But despite how annoying Connor might be once in a while, you all understood that he, and plenty of other androids, were still learning about the world every day. So, you tolerated it. Most of the time, at least.

As you were approaching the entrance, it suddenly occurred to you that when you first joined this team, you weren't particularly close to any of the people that you worked with. However, now, here you were, visiting a zoo with them on the weekend, chattering along like the best of friends. It was almost - key word, almost - like you were family. You hadn't actually talked to your biological family in a while, as they all lived outside of Detroit and you tended to be busy with your work, so you supposed that your teammates were the closest thing to family that you actually had at the moment. It was an odd thought, considering that more than half of your team were androids, who weren't even considered citizens all that long ago, but... you were all very close, you had to admit.

You were jolted out of your thoughts by somebody tapping you on the shoulder. You turned to see Josh standing next to you. He gestured towards the rest of the group, who were quickly entering the park.

"Hey, Hank bought us tickets, he said that there was no need to pay him back either. Connor's dragging all of us along to look at the wolf enclosure. Want to come?"

"I wouldn't miss Connor's face seeing a dog, but bigger and fluffier, for the world," You replied, flashing a smile as you began to follow after the rest of your group, Josh walking at your side. "Connor really does love dogs. So wolves aren't too huge a stretch of the imagination."

"True," Josh hummed.

" _Very_ true," You corrected him, and you both laughed out loud. You smiled to yourself as you caught up with the group, looking around. Yeah... family. That was the right word. At least, it was for the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all filler, I'm so, so sorry. I might have to put this on hiatus until I can figure out how to move the story forwards. Sorry, everybody. ://


End file.
